Don Correll: A Well-Read Man
 __CEO of American Water Don Correll (right) joins Mayor __Steve Conaway of Fillmore, CA on a panel to promote __water privatization at the US Conference of Mayors __meeting in January 2007? Is he contemplating __privatizing this shiny pitcher of public tap water? |
Hundreds of mayors from cities around the country converged on Washington, DC last month to press some flesh with their members of Congress during a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Executives from American Water, the country’s largest private water company, were there in full force, making the standard pitch that handing over public water systems to their company would solve all a city's water woes.
We happened to stumble into CEO Don Correll as he was leaving his presentation to the Mayors’ Water Council. We handed him a copy of our latest report, The Future of American Water , which he politely accepted, assuring us he had already read it cover to cover. (The report documents how mayors from Tennessee to Illinois to California are looking to leave American Water entirely, and bring local control and ownership to their communities’ water systems.) Since Mr. Correll enjoys reading, we wonder if he’s had a chance to read the $7.6 million offer that Felton, CA recently made to buy its local water system from American Water?
In federal news, President Bush delivered his budget for fiscal year 2008 (runs Oct ’08 to Oct ’09) to Congress yesterday. Instead of increasing funding for water so cities like Felton wouldn’t be tempted to privatize for lack of money to replace pipes and treatment plants, the president would like change the tax code so private corporations (like American Water) could get tax free funding for water projects. Read our statement here or our Q&A on why this is a bad idea.
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