Posted on 10/01/2002 7:47:56 AM PDT by sasquatch
FELTON A German conglomerate wants to buy the company that supplies water to Felton and export water to Perrier, said county Supervisor Jeff Almquist, who wants to put the brakes on the deal.
Two weeks ago, the water company, California-American Water Works, asked the state for permission to raise rates by 57 percent. The company has 1,350 connections in the Felton area, where water rates already are among the highest in the county.
The water company maintains rates have become unreasonably low. Almquist called the rate-hike request "extremely high and inappropriate," and will discuss the proposal at todays county Board of Supervisors meeting.
He is concerned about the sale because Cal-American gets its water from the San Lorenzo River Watershed, which is the only source of water for more than 80,000 county residents. Much of the county is experiencing groundwater shortages.
Almquist will ask supervisors to:
Formally protest the rate-hike request and ask for hearings to be held in Felton. Investigate whether the county can legally ban the exportation of drinking water. Seek the right to participate in the proposed acquisition of Cal-American by RWE Aktiengesellschaft of Essen, Germany. Ask the countys water advisory commission for recommendations.
"As a county, we cannot afford to further deplete this vital resource by exportation, particularly if its just going to be converted to globalized profit benefitting principally German shareholders," Almquist wrote in a memo to the supervisors.
He described the German firm as the third-largest for-profit water provider in the world, behind Vivendi, the worlds largest water utility, which has been suffering financial difficulties.
Almquist said he is troubled by news reports from Great Britain that subsidaries of the German firm have been involved in illegal dumping of nuclear waste in the North Sea and bribing people to cover up illegal storage of nuclear water. The firms coal-mining operations have had multiple fatalities in the United States over the past five years, he added.
The county, however, failed to respond to a notice of the proposed sale in December. A notice apparently went to the District Attorneys Office and to the county clerk rather than the county counsel, Almquist said, and supervisors didnt get information to meet a deadline that would have given them a say in the sale.
Almquist wants the county counsel to figure out how supervisors can now register their concerns with the state Public Utilties Commission.
Hes also brought his concerns to the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, which supplies customers in Scotts Valley and Ben Lomond, two communities adjacent to Felton.
Water district director David Ross said he would be willing to explore buying the Felton system if customers request it.
"We are adjacent, but what size investment it would take, the condition of the system and the problems it has are unknown," he said. "We dont want to spend our resources unless people want us."
Several years ago, when Felton water rates rose, customers approached the neighboring water district, but nothing came of it, Ross said.
Well we agree about global fascism. We still disagree about the manner of local control. It is when property owners are compensated for the use of their water collection, storage, and transmission services that the system will start to optimize. Keep politics out of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.