by Frances Madeson | Aug 1, 2026 | American Water, Illinois, News, public commons, public goods, public utilities, Water, water privatization
The road from public ownership of a municipal water system to privatization is a one-way street paved with regret. Once public ownership is lost, it’s a rarity to recover control. Bolingbrook, Illinois, has been trying to for the last 15 years. Missoula, Montana, is one extraordinary success story, but it took sustained public support, political will across administrations, costly decades in the…
Source
by Katie Rose Quandt | Jun 7, 2026 | Activism, American Water, Municipal Water Supplies, News, Pennsylvania, public utilities, utility rates, Water, water privatization
In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court blocked the corporate takeover of a public water system in Chester, Pennsylvania. After a nine-year battle, the court ruled that Chester, a town of 33,000 outside Philadelphia, does not have the jurisdiction to sell the local municipal water system to Aqua, a massive company that owns water and sewer systems throughout the state. The ruling came in…
Source
