Kauai’s Aqua Engineers Inc. has purchased the Puhi Sewage & Water Co. from AOL co-founder Steve Case’s Grove Farm Co. Inc. for an undisclosed price, the engineering firm told PBN Wednesday. The Puhi plant has been operated by Aqua Engineers for nearly two decades. The Puhi facility becomes the first and only treatment facility that the company fully owns. The Puhi Sewage & Water Co. currently provides wastewater collection, treatment and water reuse services to more than 1,300 residential and commercial customers.
The employee-owned firm, which is based in Koloa, has 95 employees and operates and maintains more than 30 wastewater and 15 water-treatment facilities on Kauai, Oahu, Lanai, Maui and the Big Island. It also has contracts with the U.S. Army on Oahu.
“We have the expertise in utility services from operations to accounting, so it makes sense to move into ownership," Ken Davis, president and COO of Aqua Engineers, said in a statement. "For more than 10 years we have successfully owned and operated the Army wastewater utility at Schofield Barracks on Oahu through one of the nation’s first utility privatization contracts. Acquiring Puhi Sewer and Water will further our investment in Hawaii and Kauai as a locally based, employee-owned company.” (Source: Pacific Business News)