Did you know that we should privatize our water infrastructure? News to me too.

[mahina]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/20/water.main.infrastructure/index.html?hpt=Sbin

All looks normal until you get to the end of this article:

"During the past couple of decades federal money for water systems has been cut significantly, he said. Economic stimulus legislation in 2009 was a "drop in the bucket," said Goldstein, who said about $10 billion was aimed at U.S. water infrastructure projects -- out of $787 billion in total stimulus.

Government funding of community water systems may be partially to blame for the crumbling water infrastructure, said Randal O'Toole, senior analyst for the Cato Institute policy think tank.
"The money should come from user fees," said O'Toole. "All the costs of construction and maintenance might be borne by users out of annual or monthly fees."

To keep prices down, O'Toole suggested privatizing community water utilities. "In the 19th century, almost every major American city had private water companies," said O'Toole. "And then we had this wave of socialization where the government took everything over and mismanaged it so the quality of tap water is lower and costs are higher."

I would expect this from Fox, to dump a Cato Institute plug for privatizing the very air we breathe.

Oh wait, it's that liberal bastion CNN.

[rfranklin]

1. Total bullshit...

If it was so good why were people happy to have municipal water systems? Because history doesn't support any of these privitization cheerleaders. They just make up stuff because they want to get their hands on a commodity that they can turn into a cash cow.

[abelenkpe]

4. Exactly.

Privatization is a scam.

Cato institute....what a complete joke.

Thank you CNN for continuing to suck

[mahina]

18. Couldn't agree with you more

Should I have used the sarcasm tag in the first line for those who might not read to the bottom of the post?

I'm also interested in the thought process of the writer. Tasked with writing about America's need to modernize and invest in our infrastructure, what kind of a mind would turn to the Cato Institute as a source?

[Turbineguy]

2. Yes.

And the water utilities were made public for a reason. What is it about these stupid motherfuckers and history?

[RufusTFirefly]

3. All part of Grover's wet dream

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." -- Grover Norquist

As David Gunn, former president of Amtrak once lamented to Congress, "First you starve us. Then you yell at us for being too skinny."

Free-market zealots seek nothing less than a total destruction of the public services and infrastructure.

And their plan is succeeding.

[KansDem]

6. He'll have to rewrite his famous edict...

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub filled with privatized water."

[BadgerKid]

5. Last I heard, ag companies wanted to own the aquifers

several years ago. I'm leery of us selling publically owned assets to private entities.

[tabatha]

7. They privatized water in South Africa and it was a disaster.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/southafrica.html


“‘Privatisation is a new kind of apartheid,’ said Richard Mokolo... ‘Apartheid separated whites from blacks. Privatisation separates the rich from the poor.’”
http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=4564

[KansDem]

8. Time for another viewing of "Chinatown" (1974)

JJ 'Jake' Gittes is a private detective who seems to specialize in matrimonial cases. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray when she suspects her husband Hollis, builder of the city's water supply system, of having an affair. Gittes does what he does best and photographs him with a young girl but in the ensuing scandal, it seems he was hired by an impersonator and not the real Mrs. Mulwray. When Mr. Mulwray is found dead, Jake is plunged into a complex web of deceit involving murder, incest and municipal corruption all related to the city's water supply.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/

What makes us of think privatized water supplies will work in the best interests of the public?

"The future, Mr. Gittes!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYMWkRrC7UY

[gateley]

9. A guy told me that many States? Counties? have sold water rights, that even

if you own land with a creek running through it, technically it may not be "your" water. Don't know if that's factual, but it's not beyond belief. :shrug:

[ejpoeta]

10. yeah because making it a money making enterprise always leads to

lower prices.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. In Bolivia the people were forbidden from collecting rain water

because the government had sold all water rights to private corporations.

[BonnieJW]

12. Didn't that cause a huge revolt?

[Warren Stupidity]

13. it certainly was part of what led to the overthrow of the rightwing gov.

But Bolivia had a long history of left wing populism.

[starroute]

16. That was the case in Colorado until recently

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html

June 28, 2009

For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West.

Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago.

Now two new laws in Colorado will allow many people to collect rainwater legally. The laws are the latest crack in the rainwater edifice, as other states, driven by population growth, drought, or declining groundwater in their aquifers, have already opened the skies or begun actively encouraging people to collect.

“I was so willing to go to jail for catching water on my roof and watering my garden,” said Tom Bartels, a video producer here in southwestern Colorado, who has been illegally watering his vegetables and fruit trees from tanks attached to his gutters. “But now I’m not a criminal.”


http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html

Utah isn't the only state with rainwater collection bans, either. Colorado and Washington also have rainwater collection restrictions that limit the free use of rainwater, but these restrictions vary among different areas of the states and legislators have passed some laws to help ease the restrictions.

In Colorado, two new laws were recently passed that exempt certain small-scale rainwater collection systems, like the kind people might install on their homes, from collection restrictions.

Prior to the passage of these laws, Douglas County, Colorado, conducted a study on how rainwater collection affects aquifer and groundwater supplies. The study revealed that letting people collect rainwater on their properties actually reduces demand from water facilities and improves conservation.

[Kali]

22. oops I didn't read the whole thread again!

broke one of my New Years resolutions! :blush:

[Kali]

21. you should check the regs in Colorado!

In Arizona you can collect off your roof, but if you have land and the ephemeral run-off from rain makes it into any kind of established water way (tiny dry stream bed for example) you can not impound it with out a permit.

[Ernesto]

14. Oh yeah!

Put PG&E in charge!

:sarcasm:

[JDPriestly]

15. Absolutely not.

A lot of Americans foolishly bottled water when many times, their public drinking water is much safer and purer.

I once had a job that concerned water and the purity of water. Municipal water in a city like, say Los Angeles, is carefully monitored. Once a year we get a report on the chemical makeup of our water. Do you get that when you buy bottled water? Do you think that private water companies will monitor the water as carefully as the government authorities do in many areas? I think not.

No to privatizing water. Absolutely not.

Your water is only as clean as the water that flows into it from your neighbors'. Learn about how water works. Think about how it flows before you fall for the idea of privatizing water.

[wtmusic]

17. Then industry would have a place to dump their mercury and not get hassled

by the commie EPA.

[Festivito]

19. Because we want the people to fight for democracy without having a say in it.

Oh, er, ah, oh, crap.

[Fledermaus]

20. Water is a Common Pool Resource it belongs to the people.

It is not private property. We should pay the true cost of providing us water and nothing more. It can be just as bad to subsidies its use. Subsidizing its use promotes waste.

[Kali]

23. not in the western US

water is a very important property right

[Fledermaus]

24. Is it owned by GE or like?

Not all Sates are the same. I live in Texas. What ever rain falls on my property is mine.

In Colorado it would be against the law for someone to harvest rain off their own roof. Does that water belong to the state or a private company?

[Kali]

26. surface water is appropriated by first user, otherwise to the state

rainfall can be impounded off surfaces, but as soon as it becomes channelized it belongs to the state (unless permitted)

groundwater is generally owned by the landowner - no accounting for large common aquifers

water law in Arizona is really strange and complicated

[Kablooie]

25. They should privatize the U.S. Treasury. It could be highly profitable.