One thought on “Agenda — Columbia Borough Council Meeting — March 24, 2026”
Leo Lutz is potentially a major security holder for Columbia Water Company (CWC). CWC and David T. Lewis was incentivized to put State/Federal money into the Walnut Treatment Plant to increase its asset value, not its function. CWC did not actually reinvest into the water system/water quality. They built an architectural marvel that fails its core function whilst the squeezed town suffers the contaminating results. Profits went to security holders like Donald Nikolaus’s family trusts, Nancy and Jay Lutz, John Hinkle, Glatfelter, Kraft, and Hess. They made capital ‘improvements’ from state/federal loans through self-certification of Buchart Horn’s Daniel Cargnel to charge more onto the rate base instead of fixing the failing system i.e. 100 year main lines / system bottleneck.
HMS Legal, Columbia Water Company’s representation with the PUC, is utilized to inflate consumer rates by citing interim orders, compounding undisputed revenues. This is all whilst PENNVEST and PaDEP are told differing stories. So much so that PENNVEST never had documentation of project scope down from David T. Lewis. The 8.18 from PENNVEST 80180 should be null per the contractual agreement of no scope change without authorization. PUC has allowed the costing to be passed to ratepayers for over a decade on the failed architectural project. No state audit or question.
The reason Columbia is financially squeezed is because at least 100$ annually per dwelling unit goes to “historic revitalization” instead of safe drinking water and functional infrastructure. This is taken out as dividends to the shareholders. The ratepayers are paying for private individuals’ livelihoods instead of functioning public water.
Donald Nikolaus regionalized CWC with Marietta to avoid LRAA TTHM violations as the river intake system has 100-year-old mainlines and make the system PWS7360123 look better than it actually is. Marietta utilizes wells and tracks on same system to offset the imbalance. Columbia and Mountville pay for the acquisition in 80180 that hides their own intake system’s failures.
Walnut Treatment Plant has documented Maximum Containment Level exceedances multiple times past 80PPB in year 2025. The end system checkpoints are in Mountville. October 2025 documented exceedance at 109µg/L or PPB. This was a day that testing was known. 36% higher than MCL allowance… 2.7x higher than the dosage related to increased cancer risk. Exposure to disinfection by-products and risk of cancer: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis
…meta-analysis eventually included 25 articles, encompassing 8 cohort studies with 6,038,525 participants and 10,668 cases, and 17 case-control studies with 10,847 cases and 20,702 controls.
The threshold dose for TTHM in relation to cancer risk was determined to be 55 µg/L for females and 40 µg/L for males.
Columbia and Marietta population is exorbitantly charged for failing water infrastructure just so the water company can transmit water through lines scheduled to be replaced every 500 years. However, the intake plant is exceptionally pretty and CWC nets at least $1 million off necessity every year.
Firetrucks should also be 170 years old, so long as they get to be repainted on the captured rate base’s dime.
This governance is poor and full of self-dealing. Extraction at its finest, costliest to the common person in Columbia/Mountville, Healthwise and financially.
>>>The pumping and filtration plant in Columbia was expanded and modernized, a project spearheaded by Don and one which brought him an immense sense of accomplishment.
Don and company’s accomplishment will truly be one of the costliest things for Columbia for years to come… in more ways than one.
Wonder where Glatfelter Memorial Field, RCW Athletic Club, or Wright’s Ferry Mansion gets their funding from… The Captured
Columbia Spy 
Leo Lutz is potentially a major security holder for Columbia Water Company (CWC). CWC and David T. Lewis was incentivized to put State/Federal money into the Walnut Treatment Plant to increase its asset value, not its function. CWC did not actually reinvest into the water system/water quality. They built an architectural marvel that fails its core function whilst the squeezed town suffers the contaminating results. Profits went to security holders like Donald Nikolaus’s family trusts, Nancy and Jay Lutz, John Hinkle, Glatfelter, Kraft, and Hess. They made capital ‘improvements’ from state/federal loans through self-certification of Buchart Horn’s Daniel Cargnel to charge more onto the rate base instead of fixing the failing system i.e. 100 year main lines / system bottleneck.
HMS Legal, Columbia Water Company’s representation with the PUC, is utilized to inflate consumer rates by citing interim orders, compounding undisputed revenues. This is all whilst PENNVEST and PaDEP are told differing stories. So much so that PENNVEST never had documentation of project scope down from David T. Lewis. The 8.18 from PENNVEST 80180 should be null per the contractual agreement of no scope change without authorization. PUC has allowed the costing to be passed to ratepayers for over a decade on the failed architectural project. No state audit or question.
The reason Columbia is financially squeezed is because at least 100$ annually per dwelling unit goes to “historic revitalization” instead of safe drinking water and functional infrastructure. This is taken out as dividends to the shareholders. The ratepayers are paying for private individuals’ livelihoods instead of functioning public water.
Donald Nikolaus regionalized CWC with Marietta to avoid LRAA TTHM violations as the river intake system has 100-year-old mainlines and make the system PWS7360123 look better than it actually is. Marietta utilizes wells and tracks on same system to offset the imbalance. Columbia and Mountville pay for the acquisition in 80180 that hides their own intake system’s failures.
Walnut Treatment Plant has documented Maximum Containment Level exceedances multiple times past 80PPB in year 2025. The end system checkpoints are in Mountville. October 2025 documented exceedance at 109µg/L or PPB. This was a day that testing was known. 36% higher than MCL allowance… 2.7x higher than the dosage related to increased cancer risk.
Exposure to disinfection by-products and risk of cancer: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis
…meta-analysis eventually included 25 articles, encompassing 8 cohort studies with 6,038,525 participants and 10,668 cases, and 17 case-control studies with 10,847 cases and 20,702 controls.
The threshold dose for TTHM in relation to cancer risk was determined to be 55 µg/L for females and 40 µg/L for males.
Columbia and Marietta population is exorbitantly charged for failing water infrastructure just so the water company can transmit water through lines scheduled to be replaced every 500 years. However, the intake plant is exceptionally pretty and CWC nets at least $1 million off necessity every year.
Firetrucks should also be 170 years old, so long as they get to be repainted on the captured rate base’s dime.
This governance is poor and full of self-dealing. Extraction at its finest, costliest to the common person in Columbia/Mountville, Healthwise and financially.
>>>The pumping and filtration plant in Columbia was expanded and modernized, a project spearheaded by Don and one which brought him an immense sense of accomplishment.
Don and company’s accomplishment will truly be one of the costliest things for Columbia for years to come… in more ways than one.
Wonder where Glatfelter Memorial Field, RCW Athletic Club, or Wright’s Ferry Mansion gets their funding from…
The Captured
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