Press Releases: Water

The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records (OOR) has issued a determination compelling the City of Allentown to make public critical details of the bidding process in its controversial plan to lease the city’s water and sewer systems. Food & Water Watch, the consumer group that filed the Right-to-Know appeal with the state, is calling on the Allentown City Council to refrain from voting on the plan before the facts of the bidding process are finally brought to light by Mayor Pawlowski’s administration.

Press Release: As municipalities throughout the United States struggle to balance budgets in the wake of last decade’s financial crisis, some may raise cash by leasing or selling their drinking and wastewater systems to private entities.

In response to yesterday’s report touting the “aggregate” economic benefits of liquefied natural gas exports – commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy and conducted by NERA Economic Consulting – Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter and Clean Ocean Action Executive Director Cindy Zipf released the following statement…

“After witnessing water users in Florida suffer several years of aggressive rate hikes, questionable water quality and poor customer service, we are pleased to learn that Aqua Utility, a subsidiary of Aqua America, is seeking to sell all of its Florida water and sewer systems to the Florida Governmental Utility Authority. The community groups and volunteers of Florida FLOW, local organizers and residents should be congratulated for this victory and for dealing a powerful blow to water privatization in Florida.

“While Aqua Utility’s retreat is a great first step toward regaining public control of water and sewer systems throughout the state, it is still only one victory in the overall fight against the corporate abuses of water privatization. While we are hopeful that residents can regain public control of their water systems soon it remains to be seen if Aqua Florida will negotiate a sale price in good faith or continue to stonewall the four year effort of residents to secure safe, affordable water.

“The final result of Aqua Utility’s troubles in Florida offer critical insight regarding our work against water privatization: private utilities continue to charge higher rates for poorer service than public systems, and residents around the country are fighting back. In the long run, we hope that Aqua will allow local public municipalities to run these water and sewer systems with full resident support, and that the corporation does not pursue selling these systems to another private company that could be as bad or worse as Aqua America.”

“On September 5, the Massachusetts Attorney General approved amendments that the town of Concord made to its bylaws, making it the first town in the United States to ban the sale of plain, single-use bottled water. We applaud this historic decision.