Middlesex Water Company Launches $160 Million Infrastructure Effort

ISELIN, N.J., March 21, 2017 -- Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX) today announced a major infrastructure campaign to enhance safety, reliability and resiliency throughout its water system in New Jersey. The campaign, Water For Tomorrow^®, involves numerous projects designed to upgrade and replace infrastructure and enhance the integrity of system assets to better serve the current and future generations of water users. Middlesex plans to invest $160 million through 2018 in connection with this plan.  The Middlesex system in New Jersey provides retail, commercial and industrial water services to 61,000 homes and businesses in Carteret, Edison, Metuchen, South Amboy, South Plainfield and Woodbridge.

Dennis W. Doll, President and CEO of Middlesex Water Company, Announces the Company's $160 Million Infrastructure Effort, Water For Tomorrow, to Enhance Safety, Reliability and Resiliency in its Water System in New Jersey

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a555db19-d92c-420c-90dd-338837971eaf.

Water For Tomorrow projects include:

• Construction of a 42”, 4.6 mile water transmission pipeline to provide critical resiliency and redundancy capability to the Company’s water transmission system.
• Replacement of five miles of water mains including service lines, valves, fire hydrants and meters in the Borough of South Plainfield, NJ
• Introduction of an enhanced treatment process at the Company’s largest water plant in Edison, NJ, which helps reduce disinfection by-products that can develop naturally during treatment
• Additional elevated storage tanks to supplement and ensure water supply during emergencies and peak usage periods
• Upgrades and improvements to water interconnections with neighboring utilities for resiliency and emergency response
• Relocation of meters from inside customers’ premises to exterior meter pits to allow quicker access by crews in emergencies as well as enhanced customer safety and convenience
• Additional standby power generation.

This long-planned capital program follows the recent release of an Infrastructure Report Card issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which rated the state of our country’s water infrastructure a D+ and urged a wakeup call attending to the condition of America’s drinking water. 

“Working to ensure sustained quality service across generations is a major part of our responsibility as a steward of a precious natural resource that is critical to economic stability, as well as to life itself. This responsibility requires that we make smart, proactive capital investments,” said Dennis W. Doll, Middlesex Water Chairman, President and CEO.  “The projects encompassed in the Water For Tomorrow campaign are all based on rigorous asset management evaluations. They are a natural extension of the diligence we have applied over many years to make prudent investments to bolster our water delivery network, enhance system pressures and storage, provide critical back up supplies, reduce lost water, and enhance the safety of our water treatment process,” added Doll.

Information and updates about the Water For Tomorrow program can be found on www.middlesexwater.com.  

Middlesex Water Company is observing its 120^th year as a water provider in 2017.  The Company provides regulated and unregulated water and wastewater utility services in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania through various subsidiary companies. 

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among others, our long-term strategy and expectations, the status of our acquisition program, the impact of our acquisitions, the impact of current and projected rate requests and the impact of our capital program on our environmental compliance. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements including: general economic business conditions, unfavorable weather conditions, the success of certain cost containment initiatives, changes in regulations or regulatory treatment, availability and the cost of capital, the success of growth initiatives and other factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact:   
Bernadette Sohler, Vice President – Corporate Affairs
Middlesex Water Company,  
1500 Ronson Road
Iselin, New Jersey   08830
(732) 638-7549 
www.middlesexwater.com