Segment Information	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2021
Segment Information [Abstract]
Segment Information	Note 13 – Segment Information  On March 16, 2020, the Company completed the Peoples Gas Acquisition, marking the Company’s entrance into the regulated natural gas business. The operating results of Peoples are included in the consolidated financial statements for the period since the acquisition date. As a result, the Company now has twelve operating segments and two reportable segments. The Regulated Water segment is comprised of eight operating segments representing its water and wastewater regulated utility companies, which are organized by the states where the Company provides water and wastewater services. The eight water and wastewater utility operating segments are aggregated into one reportable segment, because each of these operating segments has the following similarities: economic characteristics, nature of services, production processes, customers, water distribution or wastewater collection methods, and the nature of the regulatory environment. The Regulated Natural Gas segment is comprised of one operating segment representing natural gas utility companies, acquired in the Peoples Gas Acquisition, for which the Company provides natural gas distribution services. In addition to the Company’s two reportable segments, we include three of our operating segments within the Other category below. These segments are not quantitatively significant and are comprised of our non-regulated natural gas operations, Aqua Infrastructure, and Aqua Resources. Our non-regulated natural gas operations consist of utility service line protection solutions and repair services to households and the operation of gas marketing and production entities. Prior to our October 30, 2020 sale of investment in joint venture, Aqua Infrastructure provided non-utility raw water supply services for firms in the natural gas drilling industry. Aqua Resources offers, through a third party, water and sewer service line protection solutions and repair services to households. In addition to these segments, Other is comprised of business activities not included in the reportable segments, including corporate costs that have not been allocated to the Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments and intersegment eliminations. Corporate costs include general and administrative expenses, and interest expense. The Company reports these corporate costs within Other as they relate to corporate-focused responsibilities and decisions and are not included in internal measures of segment operating performance used by the Company to measure the underlying performance of the operating segments. The regulated water and regulated natural gas segments report interest expense that includes long-term debt that was pushed-down to the regulated operating subsidiaries from Essential Utilities, Inc. The following table presents information about the Company’s reportable segments, including the operating results and capital expenditures of the Regulated Natural Gas segment for the period since the completion of the Peoples Gas Acquisition on March 16, 2020: Three Months Ended Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 September 30, 2020 Regulated Water Regulated Natural Gas Other Consolidated Regulated Water Regulated Natural Gas Other ConsolidatedOperating revenues $ 259,859  $ 94,752  $ 7,249  $ 361,860  $ 255,725  $ 88,880  $ 4,042  $ 348,647 Operations and maintenance expense 86,923  53,954  (1,522) 139,355  79,313  59,560  (2,699) 136,174 Purchased gas - 20,386  5,102  25,488  - 14,841  1,903  16,744 Depreciation and amortization 45,506  28,194  807  74,507  42,955  25,793  1,193  69,941 Taxes other than income taxes 16,291  4,271  496  21,058  15,906  4,145  504  20,555 Operating income (loss) 111,139  (12,053) 2,366  101,452  117,551  (15,459) 3,141  105,233 Interest expense, net 27,389  18,406  5,772  51,567  27,063  9,333  13,351  49,747 Allowance for funds used during construction (5,407) (675) - (6,082) (3,082) (461) - (3,543)Equity loss in joint venture - - - - - - 3,626  3,626 Other (1,896) 5,329  266  3,699  110  (761) (3,709) (4,360)Income before income taxes 91,053  (35,113) (3,672) 52,268  93,460  (23,570) (10,127) 59,763 Provision for income taxes (benefit) 9,230  (6,821) (644) 1,765  8,081  (1,219) (2,831) 4,031 Net income (loss) $ 81,823  $ (28,292) $ (3,028) $ 50,503  $ 85,379  $ (22,351) $ (7,296) $ 55,732  Nine Months Ended Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 September 30, 2020 Regulated Water Regulated Natural Gas Other Consolidated Regulated Water Regulated Natural Gas Other ConsolidatedOperating revenues $ 736,389  $ 579,429  $ 26,639  $ 1,342,457  $ 706,008  $ 273,798  $ 8,894  $ 988,700 Operations and maintenance expense 243,071  157,614  (8,740) 391,945  229,652  120,192  21,571  371,415 Purchased gas - 183,062  19,476  202,538  - 68,807  4,127  72,934 Depreciation and amortization 136,189  83,905  1,529  221,623  127,214  56,026  2,838  186,078 Taxes other than income taxes 47,756  13,356  2,107  63,219  45,292  8,799  2,333  56,424 Operating income (loss) 309,373  141,492  12,267  463,132  303,850  19,974  (21,975) 301,849 Interest expense, net 80,971  56,125  16,551  153,647  78,500  21,260  31,544  131,304 Allowance for funds used during construction (13,091) (831) - (13,922) (7,905) (816) - (8,721)Equity loss in joint venture - - - - - - 3,283  3,283 Other (5,265) 4,462  (1,213) (2,016) 477  (1,516) (2,489) (3,528)Income before income taxes 246,758  81,736  (3,071) 325,423  232,778  1,046  (54,313) 179,511 Provision for income taxes (benefit) 22,056  (11,128) (611) 10,317  18,402  (8,131) (12,902) (2,631)Net income (loss) $ 224,702  $ 92,864  $ (2,460) $ 315,106  $ 214,376  $ 9,177  $ (41,411) $ 182,142 Capital expenditures $ 404,894  $ 269,958  $ 993  $ 675,845  $ 376,064  $ 134,632  $ 43,445  $ 554,141  September 30, December 31, 2021 2020Total assets: Regulated water $ 8,301,201 $ 7,838,034Regulated natural gas 5,748,774 5,303,507Other 186,510 563,736Consolidated $ 14,236,485 $ 13,705,277