EPCOR USA completes acquisition of Chaparral City Water Company

PHOENIX, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - EPCOR Water (USA) Inc. (EPCOR USA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of EPCOR Utilities Inc., has completed the acquisition of all outstanding shares of Chaparral City Water Company (Chaparral) of Fountain Hills, Arizona.

EPCOR USA entered into an agreement to acquire Chaparral from American States Water Company for U.S. $35 million, including the assumption of approximately U.S. $6 million in long-term debt on June 7, 2010. The Arizona Corporation Commission approved the transaction in a meeting held on March 30, 2011 and issued a final decision on April 7, 2011.

Chaparral is principally engaged in the purchase, treatment, distribution, and sale of water to about 13,000 customers in the Town of Fountain Hills and in a small portion of Scottsdale, Arizona.

"It's been almost a full year since we announced our intention to acquire Chaparral City Water Company. We can now turn our attention to the continued delivery of clean, safe and reliable water, and maintaining high levels of customer service," said EPCOR President and CEO Don Lowry. "We look forward to introducing EPCOR to our customers and neighbors, and participating in the life of this community."

Chaparral has 12 employees, who will continue to operate the utility.

In addition to its staff, Chaparral assets consist of a surface water treatment plant, reservoirs with a combined storage capacity of 7.55 million gallons, a water transmission and distribution system, which includes 184 miles of pipeline, service connections, meters, fire hydrants and wells.

EPCOR is a trusted provider of safe, reliable and high-quality drinking water and wastewater services to more than one million people in over 70 communities in Western Canada and now Arizona. EPCOR owns and / or operates 25 water treatment and distribution facilities and 25 wastewater treatment and collection facilities.

About EPCOR Utilities Inc.
EPCOR's wholly owned subsidiaries build, own and operate electrical transmission and distribution networks, water and wastewater treatment facilities and infrastructure in Canada and the United States. EPCOR, headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, is an Alberta Top 50 employer. EPCOR's website is www.epcor.ca

Forward-looking Information
Certain information in this news release is forward looking and related to anticipated financial performance, events and strategies. When used in this context, words such as "will", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "intend", "target" and "expect" or similar words suggest future outcomes. By their nature, such statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, which could cause EPCOR's actual results and experience to be materially different than the anticipated results. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, operating performance, commodity prices and volumes, load settlement, regulatory and government decisions including changes to environmental and tax legislation, weather and economic conditions, competitive pressures, construction risks, availability and cost of financing, foreign exchange risks, availability of labour and management resources and the performance of partners, contractors and suppliers.

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SOURCE EPCOR Utilities Inc.