Posted on 05/22/2018 10:20:53 AM PDT by June2
MT. VERNON, Ill.---There's quite the uproar going on in the city of Mt. Vernon and its surrounds as of the past few weeks, all of it having to do with water. Mainstream media has been all over the matter of the public's opposition to Illinois-American Water (IAW) being brought in to the Mt. Vernon area. You can find such stories as this on The Southern this morning following a meeting last night in Mt. V......
(Excerpt) Read more at disclosurenewsonline.com ...
While reading about the current issue, stumbled upon this article about public water utilities being taken over by private companies and in one case, increasing price by 60%.
The parent company is German too. The article raises the issue of having a foreign company controlling something so essential as water. Illinois seems susceptible to this because of crumbling infrastructure and depleted budgets to pay for repairs and/or upgrades.
Was wondering if this (foreign companies taking over essential services such as water) is widespread?
More from the article....
....“So Mt. Vernon did what way too many public bodies/municipalities upstate have been doing for a couple of decades: They contacted Illinois-American Water to come in and "help them solve the problem," which, in IAW parlance, means simply that they're going to buy the water system and all rights to the public's water, and run the water system themselves...with a 60 percent water rate hike to be issued down the road. You read that right. SIXTY PERCENT...and that's conservative. “.....
“...Big, big water companies…one in particular called Illinois-American (IA) Water, owned by parent company American Water Works (AWW). IA owned, at the time, roughly 70 percent of the state’s water supplies and infrastructure, most of it upstate…but rapidly encroaching on southern Illinois. This nearly made my heart stop. It’s one thing if big, big companies own the electric, gas, phone lines. We as humanity have done without electricity, gas and phones for millennia. We cannot do without water. When a big water company moves in to a community, they make it illegal to have your own well or surface water supply, first in the municipalities…but eventually, they make you “tie on” to their system…and you can’t have YOUR supply and THEIR supply at the same time. T-valves, you know.....”
control water. control life.
bkmk
The movie Chinatown dealt with this dark side of who own/controls the water:
I thought Trump suspended the military exercises with SK?
Illinois American Water provides a good, reliable product at a decent price. I know, because they have been my provider in many places I’ve lived.
Did they raise the rate after a few years 60%?
They raised water rates once 40%, but this was strictly for a large neighborhood build out our city said they had to cover/prepare for. Of course, the growth estimate from the city was crazy, anticipating a lot of new homes, when the city is contracting.
Check the city manager, county administrator, all elected officials for some form of kick back or new job. The Managers and administrators would have to recommend the action to “privatize” to the elected bodies, but this action started with an elected official asking for them to look into this matter and uf it saves the public money then move forward with it.
I worked as the Public Works Director at a city that started down this path and only it only stopped because the finance director miscalculated the true cost of operating and maintaing our system.
Could the rate raise actually be a special assessment to cover the cost of repairing infrastructure and new hook ups?
Water is the key of life.
Where we live now, the city runs the water, trash, and recycling, and we can’t opt out of recycling. The city, without the “big company” problem, still has restrictions on water use from non-public water.
1. Many water systems (particularly smaller ones) do not charge enough to cover the true cost of their water, especially capital and emergency reserves, or the cost of an ecperien0 full time operator. They commonly brag about having the lowest rates around, only to take a lot of heat when the bill has to jump 30% to cover a ‘fix it now’ event.
1a: These same systems are on a flat rate, unmeteted structure, so there’s no incentive to not waste water. The smaller users end up subsiding the larger users.
2: I don’t know of a municipality of any size (or local health agency) that stunningallows private wells for in-home (domestic) use. Water systems may allow a previously-built private well for irrigation, but not without some serious (and costly) equipment to keep well water (a source not approved for a public drinking water supply) out of the public (serves more than your own family) water system.
It’s what I do for a living.
2015 article...
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