The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) learned yesterday that Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has raised its rating in advance of the Authority’s $329 million bond sale scheduled for February 3, 2009.

S&P upgraded the bonds to AA+ from AA. In addition, Fitch and Moody’s affirmed the MWRA’s ratings of AA and Aa2, respectively. MWRA also received a stable outlook from all three ratings agencies.

According to S&P, the rating reflects MWRA’s “strong management, which has generated a trend of satisfactory reserves and solid liquidity over a multi-year period while successfully implementing numerous large construction projects.” S&P also cited the fiscal stability MWRA’s largest customer, the Boston Water & Sewer Commission.

The $329 million deal includes a $154 million refunding for savings and $175 million in new money to fund ongoing water and sewer projects, including:

• South Boston CSO Storage Tunnel to capture wet weather overflows to beaches
• Blue Hills Covered Storage Tanks in Quincy, which will improve service south of Boston
• Alternative energy initiatives, such as wind turbines at the Deer Island Treatment Plant

Frederick A. Laskey, MWRA’s executive director, said he was pleased with the upgrade. “Each upgrade reduces our cost of borrowing. As our debt service grows to nearly 60% of the overall operating budget, every dollar saved on borrowing becomes more and more significant to our ratepayers.”

MWRA continues to aggressively seek sources of funding for its capital projects at the lowest cost. This includes maximizing the use of funds from the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust. MWRA has also submitted a list of “shovel-ready” construction and energy projects for possible funding under the federal stimulus program.

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Updated January 30, 2009