Recently in Water & Sewer Category

Source: By SUSAN SWARD, New York Times, December 4, 2009

Pam Welsh was a retired risk management analyst immersed in her family's life when she learned this year that her Marin County bedroom community was considering a contract to have the world's largest water company operate the local sewage plant.

 ...... Her campaign, which included a petition drive, was met with a strong counterattack by the Novato Sanitary District board and others who prefer private-sector management. It is a timely subject of debate in the Bay Area, where communities have been wrestling with the broader question of whether private-public partnerships in municipal services make financial and environmental sense during tough economic times.

 

..... In 2002, the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, issued a report noting that any community needed to monitor and enforce contract provisions. "No matter how well a privatization arrangement is crafted," it said, the public agency's interests seldom matched those of the contractor.

Source: AFSCME Council 48, August 4, 2009


.... KPOW presented the Milwaukee Common Council's Steering and Rules Steering and Rules Committee with a petition signed by 500+ people calling on the Common Council to "permanently withdraw" the privatization proposal. The committee agreed with the KPOW crew and voted to put on hold a proposal to hire an advisor to help the city solicit corporate bidders for a 99-year lease of the Milwaukee Water Works.

Source: By Dan Egan and Larry Sandler, Journal Sentinel (WI), May. 24, 2009

 

 .... Now the city could indeed be on the path to become a major-league laboratory for the way that freshwater is delivered, but perhaps not in the way Barrett and regional business and academic leaders hoped for.  Scrambling for cash simply to fund basic city services - and less than a year after the passage of the Great Lakes compact designed to protect the world's largest freshwater system from being drained by profiteers - Milwaukee is looking into turning its state-of-the-art water treatment system over to a for-profit company.

Cities such as Buffalo, Indianapolis and Atlanta have dipped their toes into the water-for-profit business by signing deals with private companies to run their systems for periods ranging from five to 20 years, with varying degrees of success - and failure.  ...  Milwaukee is pondering a 75- to 99-year lease.

Source:By Diane Bukowski, The Michigan Citizen,March 23, 2009

 

 If approved by City Council, combined water and sewerage rates this year will skyrocket 12.3 percent for Detroit residents, and 5.6 percent for suburbanities. Detroit sewerage increases alone would amount to a 15.8 percent increase, with an additional surcharge expected later in the year to defray delinquency rates in the city.

......... Riehl and other water department workers said that costly private contracts account for the rest of the rate increases.

..... On March 12, Riehl presented a list of contracted work that DWSD have performed or be trained to do so, saving DWSD a total of $65 million.

Source: CUPE, March 16, 2009 12:03 PM

 
The Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are partnering to launch a new initiative aimed at protecting water from privatization in the lead up to World Water Day 2009. 

Source: BY SID CASSESE, Newsday (NY),  10:17 PM EST, February 8, 2009

Adding to his already combative relationship with county worker unions, County Executive Thomas Suozzi said he is considering privatizing Nassau's three sewage treatment plants and the police department's emergency ambulance bureau.

Tucked into the tail end of a report Suozzi made to the Nassau Interim Finance Authority last week, under "Other Opportunities," Suozzi said privatization in the two areas could save taxpayers "millions of dollars a year in direct labor costs and tens of millions in capital expenditures."

Source: By Adam Lisberg, DAILY NEWS (NY), Sunday, February 1st 2009, 4:00 AM


City employees run almost every part of New York's sprawling water and sewer system - but officials want to hire private workers to operate a new filtering plant in the Bronx.

"Outsourcing is an attractive option here because filtration has never been done in this city and it's very specialized," said Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Commissioner Anne Canty.

....... Unions say the estimated 100 jobs should be held by city workers and that critical city functions shouldn't be transferred out of city hands.

"You don't put a piece of vital infrastructure like that in the hands of private industry," said Jim Tucciarelli, president of DC 37 Local 1320, which represents DEP sewage workers. "Where is that guarantee once you turn it over to private industry?"

Source: ClickonDetroit.com, 6:19 p.m. ET, Tues., Jan. 27, 2009


 The Detroit City Council has approved a resolution 7-1 to rescind the controversial $1.2 billion Synagro Technologies sludge recycling contract after a company executive pleaded guilty to bribing city council members for their votes.

"That contract was tainted and is tainted. ... Detroit should rescind it," said Council Member Kwame Kenyatta.

....... The resolution was created after AFSCME Local 207 Union President John Riehl demanded the council void the contract because of the bribery scandal.

Source:BY BEN SCHMITT, FREE PRESS (MI), January 26, 2009

 

Officials with a local union say today's developments in the Synagro Technologies scandal should prompt the city to immediately cancel its contract with the sludge disposal company.  "The whole contract process is infected by the virus of influence peddling and bribery and the federal documents make that clear," said Mike Mulholland, secretary/treasurer for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207 in Detroit, alluding to court documents obtained by the Free Press this morning in the plea deal with Synagro executive James Rosendall.

 

Related article from the Detroit News: City union wants to void Synagro contract

Source: By Jenny Lee-Adrian. Poughkeepsie Journal (NY), November 18, 2008

Dutchess County Health Commissioner Michael Caldwell wants to save money next year by contracting out for Environmental Water Lab Services even though it would mean eliminating the county lab and laying off three employees.