New Report: TTIP free trade deal 'would remove people's rights to access basic human needs like wate

[RiverLover]

8. Water is already being privatized in the US. Frackers love it. And Obama has made it even easier

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Last week, I got to be a fly on the wall at Shale Insight 2015 in Philadelphia, the annual conference of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, which includes companies working at all stages of gas drilling, fracking, processing and distribution As you can imagine, I heard some concerning things I while there, but among the more revealing “break-out sessions” was a love-fest between the oil and gas industry and private water industry, sponsored by American Water, the largest private water company in the country.

American Water has aggressively privatized water systems in Pennsylvania and sees dollar signs in the fracking industry’s relentless thirst for water — up to 10 million gallons of water to frack some wells.

Kathy Pape, Senior Vice President of American Water and head of the company’s Pennsylvania arm, chaired the session, titled “Working with Public Water Utilities: Reliable and Beneficial Water Sources for Hydraulic Fracturing.” In her opening remarks, she shared her disbelief that, years ago, American Water’s decision to sell water for fracking was actually a subject of heated debate within the company. Smiling from ear to ear, she explained how American Water “got over that hump” by making the argument that the company shouldn’t discriminate and not sell water to a sex shop, so it likewise ought not miss the opportunity to sell water to the fracking industry. Of course, unlike the fracking industry, sex shops don’t have a reputation of polluting drinking water....

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/25/private-water-and-fracking-dubious-duo

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....Although more than 20 cities in the U.S. have taken back control of water from private companies since 2002, that process is under threat after President Obama signed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act into law last year, which seeks to expand private financing for water projects....

http://www.globalresearch.ca/reversing-the-tide-of-water-privatization/5478280