HISTORY: No power was no problem our plants couldn't handle

"We had people showing up at the plants asking how they could help."

That's how our then Director of Operations Tim Tigue described employees' response to the great blackout of 2003 as staff was dedicated to maintaining service for customers.

During the event, we sampled water on local beaches and streams to ensure proper water quality was maintained, and emergency generator power was redirected at each facility to ensure critical processes were maintained.

Our Westerly plant shown here was without power for 15 hours, but wastewater flow was stored until it could be treated fully.