Recently in Water & Sewer Category

Source: By Paul Rogers, Mercury News (CA).  07/05/2010 10:12:19 PM PDT

Like a cash-strapped home- owner planning a garage sale to help pay the bills, San Jose city leaders are studying a plan to sell off or lease the city's municipal water system to a private company.

The plan, although still in the early stages, could mean a windfall of $50 million or more for the city, although it almost certainly would result in higher water bills for some San Jose residents.

Source: By Tara Lohan, AlterNet, July 9, 2010  

 In 2008, weeks after communities all over the United States celebrated the Fourth of July, the tiny town of Felton, Calif., marked its own holiday: Water Independence Day. With barbecue, music, and dancing, residents marked the end of Felton's six-year battle to gain control of its water system. The fight, like the festivities, was a grassroots effort. For when a large, private corporation bought Felton's water utility and immediately raised rates, residents organized, leading what was ultimately a successful campaign for public ownership and inspiring other communities nationwide.

.... Like many other communities with a privately controlled water system, Felton quickly experienced some of the drawbacks: skyrocketing rates, and little public recourse. But officials of some cash-strapped towns seek privatization because they believe a corporation will help lift their burden.

 Source: by Mike Hall, AFL-CIO blog, Jun 16, 2010 

Union and community activists in Trenton, N.J., rallied voters with door-to-door campaigning to beat back the New Jersey American Water Company's nearly $250,000 advertising and mail blitz to privatize a prized and profitable part of the city's water system.

In a referendum yesterday, voters rejected, 6,968 to 1,812, a proposal to sell to American Water the city's municipally owned Trenton Water Works suburban infrastructure--pipes, water towers and tanks. Said Bob Houser of the Utility Workers (UWUA):

By Brian Meyer, Buffalo News (NY), April 21, 2010, 4:09 pm

 The city's plan to end a 13-year arrangement with a company that runs Buffalo's water system and sign a new deal with an operator based in France moved forward Wednesday.

.... City officials said they're convinced Veolia will provide better customer service at a lower price.

.... American Water Services has operated the city's system since 1997. While AWS garnered positive reviews in its early years, some city officials and consumer advocates claimed customer service has slipped more recently.

Source: Judy Keen, USA TODAY, April 20, 2010

City Manager Denny Kief has advice for communities that are tempted to sell their water systems to ease budget woes: "Be very cautious." Pekin, a city of 34,000, doesn't own its water system. If it did, Kief believes, rates would be lower and extending water lines to an expansion of Pekin's industrial park and along a new bypass would be less complicated.

Most important, he says, owning such a crucial part of its infrastructure would mean Pekin could "control our own destiny." Kief's monthly bill at home is about $42, including about $12 in sewer fees that goes to the city.

.... American Water CEO Don Correll says rates also are rising for city-owned systems. As systems age and costs rise, he says, cities weigh benefits of ownership against the need to pay teachers and police and fix roads.

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: 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.