Privatization of Port Angeles' Water Supply?
A recent anonymous comment at this blog stated:
"You heard it here first: Watch Veolia Water and see how they will eventually swoop in and get control of the city's water supply. Google them and be amazed at their seemingly endless chain of bad-faith water grabs (and related lawsuits) around the world. It's no accident that they already have a presence here. Cutler is their chief minion, and I'm sure they have a person or two in the park service as well."
So I Googled it. Here are some links to Veolia Water.
And this article was particularly "interesting."
What say you? Should we be worried about this?
"You heard it here first: Watch Veolia Water and see how they will eventually swoop in and get control of the city's water supply. Google them and be amazed at their seemingly endless chain of bad-faith water grabs (and related lawsuits) around the world. It's no accident that they already have a presence here. Cutler is their chief minion, and I'm sure they have a person or two in the park service as well."
So I Googled it. Here are some links to Veolia Water.
And this article was particularly "interesting."
What say you? Should we be worried about this?
posted by Tom Harper at 2:17 PM
21 Comments:
Worried? I guess there is little point in being worried at my age, I won't be here to deal with it.
I full well expect future wars to be about water but it's up to the youth to sort it all out, it's their future.
I suppose in the future you'll have to hide your rain barrels so they can't stick meters on them.
Yes, absolutely people should be worried about the City's vast and valuable publicly-owned water resources being sold by local government officials to an unaccountable private corporation.
As seen elsewhere (as in Stockton, CA), corporations come in and quietly get cozy with public officials. Before citizens even know it is happening,an item appears on a council-meeting agenda to approve a contract to privatize the water system. Naive, lazy, or gullible council members (the ones not directly wooed by the corporation) meekly go along with the staff recommendation. If they display even a hint of resistance, the staffers and council members who have back-roomed the deal will bowl them over with enthusiastic arguments about why this wonderful thing must be done RIGHT NOW and not postponed. The City Attorney may also chime in on cue to gloss over concerns.
Remember how the public got steamrolled with HarborWorks? The stage is set for the same strategy to be employed again for privatizing the city's water system.
The threat is very, very real, and not many people even understand it; and precious few are in a position to watchdog and sound the alarm when insiders are preparing to ink the deal.
When it happens, hello even higher utility bills, and good-bye Elwha River restoration. A for-profit corporation will exercise its newly acquired right to use millions of gallons of river water a day - most of which was never put to use by the city - and will laugh all the way to an off-shore bank while they suck its water customers and the river dry.
City of PA Public Records:
http://www.cityofpa.us/publicrecords.htm
Click on "Agreements/Contracts," search term "Veolia." I did a search here but no hits on operating contracts. Someone might have to go to the city and do a public records request for that.
The Veolia contract here now is with the National Park Service, not the city.
And remember this: IF Nippon - which has the "right" to take up to 20 million gallons a day from the Elwha, a "right" that is transferable - IF Nippon took their full 20 million gallons a day during the low flow season on the Elwha, they could suck the river dry. Pretty much bone dry. And that low flow season is also - wait for it - spawning season for salmon. Thank you, Nippon, and fuck you river restoration!
So you can see myriad ways this could go wrong, very, very wrong. The city could be blackmailed into selling their water rights (or we'll kill the salmon)...The city could be driven deeply into debt (Hello, Glenn Cutler projects!) and "have to" sell their water rights...Or, the previously mentioned compliant city council could just go along with it as part of "doing business" without thinking about the consequences.
Make no mistake about it: The greatest asset the city has are its water rights. And I have no doubt that Veolia is very interested in those rights.
Now, do you REALLY think that Cherie Kidd and gang have the smarts and/or spine to go up against a multi-billion dollar foreign multi-national corporation? Anyone remember how Cherie refers to Nippon as a "local" corporation?
Anyone feel like Barney Fife was REALLY a good and competent deputy?
Do you think maybe Dennis Kucinich could be enticed to move to Port Angeles and run for the council? When he was mayor of Cleveland in the 1970's, he stood up to big business and big banks and refused to sell the city-owned power utility to a private competitor, CEI. Here's what one article said about that:
"There is little debate," wrote Cleveland Magazine in May 1996, "over the value of Muny Light today. Now Cleveland Public Power, it is a proven asset to the city that between 1985 and 1995 saved its customers $195,148,520 over what they would have paid CEI."
I type out this tirade...then see BBC got all my points, so I'm embarrassed... :(
That's how I think though, wars will be fought over water. No, they really will be.
And we turn handshakes into clusterfucks here. Can't believe we would condsider privatizing the water here. Just amazing. That's the plan, fuck something up, sell it off to your buddies.
If we are going to privatize something around here that is FUCKING USELESS, how about the cops? And judges?
Or just totally incorporate the city. Now. Lets just fucking do it.
"I suppose in the future you'll have to hide your rain barrels so they can't stick meters on them."
..bump.
Thanks for articulating my views today, BBC. Next time, though, try and use some sarcasm. No, I'm serious.
Now there's talk of registering drones, I'll bet that works as well as registering guns.
"Drones in neighborhoods are called clays. Load up."
BBC - cool info. Thanks. Drone Repair.... I hear the college will be offering that in the fall. ;)
"Drone Repair.... I hear the college will be offering that in the fall. ;)"
Gosh, those little hobby drones trying to get a look at some cleavage or a nice ass in a second story window are hardly worth fixing when you knock them out of the air with a pellet gun.
Just go buy another drone while we reload.
"The threat is very, very real, and not many people even understand it; and precious few are in a position to watchdog and sound the alarm when insiders are preparing to ink the deal."
This, along with many other really serious things that are threatening our very existence. But, very few even care.
Now, if you run a news story saying a football team is going to trade or fire a high profile player, look out! The pages will be swamped with concern and outrage.
It isn't about informing people. There's no lack of ways for people to get information these days. The truth is, most seem to think it is all some body elses' responsibility to clean up THEIR shit.
As an example, there is no lack of information about CO2, climate change and ocean acidification. Billy says "Not my problem, let the young folks deal with it". Around town, people are still buying new V-8s, like there is no problem. How will the CO2 emissions be reduced, if we each don't change our ways? It isn't about "government". It is about each of us.
Privatization? Kinda like the $4 a gallon gas we just paid over the holiday weekend. It went up a few days before, and dropped a few days after. Just so the companies could fleece us all just that much more. Once again, they'll mumble something about "supplies", as the number one EXPORT of the US is oil! And they file yet another series of records PROFITS for the same quarter.
Smile as you fuel up that big gas hog you "deserve" the "luxury" of. Smile, as you know you're just handing your money over to "Big Oil", so the executives can buy another vacation home somewhere. Or fund the ads telling you how essential the oil companies are.
Water? And?
Well... I don't live in luxury.
Fight your battles when you are young.
At some point in time you get frustrated and just give up and just sit back and watch the world, fascinated and repulsed. Knowing that you can fix nothing.
Hell, can't even get rid of Scotch Broom here and many of us have tried and lost that war.
Abandon all hope ye who enter here! Have a fucking drink.
The list is very long, of things that people have worked on, and made better.
Lots of people used to get sick and die as a result of poor sanitation. Before public health measures to eliminate illnesses. Before people stopped smoking. Before legal actions resulted in cars becoming safer. Before people organized, and demanded safe working conditions. Before a publicly funded school system.
And on, and on.
Because corporations have worked hard to get their representatives into regulatory positions, and spend so many billions in advertising to convince us to keep doing stupid and unhealthy things, we have become conditioned to accept stupid and unhealthy things as "normal". Many even defend these things!
But, as we know, the only constant is change.
BBC - repeat business... No reason someone can't repair drones and sell pellet guns too. Gosh, sort of like our water situation. Haven't you figured that out? How dare you go fishing when the fish are hurting so much? Oh, I get you. You are one of THOSE. You probably eat them too.
SLINGSHOT.... I fish a little but for what I pay for a fishing license it would be cheaper for me to just buy my fish in a store. Mostly I just enjoy the boating.
BBC - Well that sucks. I had hoped that saved a few bucks. It sounds like fun but I have a fear of cold water, not being able to breathe, and sharp things. Must be like gardening, fishing - it does not save money, possibly, but worth it for other reasons. Hope you get plenty of good boating weather.
Your comments are always so funny but your metering the rain barrel comment really got me. They really will do it too, unless you can guarantee you're not going to flush your poop down the toilet with it into their prescious sewage system. I guess the most to strive for would be two kinds of rain barrels, one to water our yards and make our food grow, maybe they won't meter that one.
But, being SUCH CLEAN WATER, and nothing in life is free, and this being America, wink, wink, we will have them to thank them for the clean air, and clean rain, having cured the worlds' ills, so have to pay that bill when we fix it and that bill will come.
Soon! They will tax/collect the fucking rain that falls on our heads, to clean up the crap that we put into the air, the stuff that get's burned because we all don't live by the water.
Ironically, the hats will be made out of tinfoil. Less evaporation. Easier to monitor, too, to see who is wearing their hats when it's raining or not. More like double irony, I guess.
Oh, well getting late... Peace, dude. And Tom.
Worried about privatization? In Port Angeles?
What, me worry?
The next city council will absolutely roll over for something like this. Except maybe for Sissi Bruch. Other than that they will do as staff tells them.
Wow, poison in the water, people slitting their wrists at a higher rate than anywhere else in Washington. Wow, wow, wow.
Two of the most depressing articles I've ever seen in the PDN. Not much info, not forward looking. Very depressing deep shit we are in here, with our depressing, angry attitutudes with our heads not only up our asses, but we are trying to stick it up further. Aint much more room in there!
The article about suicide..wow. Hello 1954. Rural area...yeah, right. Sigh....
I hear the water is really good in Bhutan. Do they have flush toilets there?
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