Who Owns West Virginia's Water? A Cautionary Tale
It took a few days after a state of emergency was declared across nine West Virginia counties and one-sixth of the state's population was told not to drink or bathe using their tap water for the national news media to discover a story of national importance occurring in the political backwaters of Appalachia.
But most haven't yet picked up on what may be the most interesting and important detail: why so many people in this water-rich state depend on a single, privately-owned treatment system and distribution network that sprawls across nine counties for their supply of drinking water.
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Unsurprising to anyone familiar with West Virginia politics, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was quick to absolve the coal industry of culpability for the current disaster, blaming it on the chemical industry -- and a particularly bad actor at that. But any attempt to decouple the coal industry from this disaster fails the laugh test, given that the spilled chemical was not only used by mining companies to wash coal, but that it had already been oozing into West Virginians' water supply long before last Thursday through underground injections of coal slurry near communities such as Prenter. What's more, as the Times and other observers make clear, the lackadaisical attitude of state regulators toward inspections is itself a result of the coal industry's longstanding and overwhelming influence over state government at all levels.
The West Virginia chemical spill is a cautionary tale for communities all over the country where multinational companies are coming in and buying up municipal water utilities to manage people's drinking water supply for profit. And factors beyond groundwater pollution by the coal industry are driving those trends, such as systemic under-investment in public water systems by federal, state and local governments, and the rapaciousness with which private companies, aided by political favoritism and lobbying, are pursuing expansion of their influence, customer base and profit margins.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-wasson/who-owns-west-virginias-water_b_4611443.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
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Around the world, multinational corporations are seizing control of public water resources and prioritizing profits for their stockholders and executives over the needs of the communities they serve.
Get the Facts
These private water companies try to persuade cash-strapped cities and towns to relinquish control over their valuable public water and sewer systems.
Many communities that experimented with privatization have found that it often results in worse service at a higher cost.
After taking over a municipal water system, water companies aggressively hike water rates by an average of about 10 percent a year, adding hundreds of dollars onto the typical annual household bill.
Privatization is irresponsible. By privatizing water and sewer systems, local government officials abdicate control over a vital public resource.
Privatization limits public accountability. Multinational water corporations are primarily accountable to their stockholders, not to the people they serve.
Loss of public input. Because water service is a natural monopoly that lacks a true market, consumers can exercise choice only at the ballot box through the election of the public officials who oversee their utility. They don’t have a vote in the corporate boardroom. With public ownership, residents can visit their elected officials and directly express their opinions about the operation of their water systems. If the officials fail to respond, the community can vote them out of office. The public lacks similar mechanisms to address their concerns with private utilities and appointed state regulators, and long-term complex contracts can tie the hands of local governments.
Loss of transparency. Private operators usually restrict public access to information and do not have the same level of openness as the public sector.
The objectives of a profit-extracting water company can conflict with the public interest.Because a water corporation has different goals than a city does, it will make its decisions using a different set of criteria, often one that emphasizes profitability. This can create conflict.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/private-vs-public/facts-and-figures/
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Most can't rely on well water because it's been contaminated for years.
Thanks Big Coal!
Any time you see the name "
name your state) American Water" just know, that is a wholly owned subsidiary of a foreign company that is just sucking up your payment for "city water" and letting the infrastructure go to shit.
