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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 courts, and ultimately hardball tactics like the invocation of eminent domain.

In southern Illinois, an ad hoc people’s movement is going after government officials who are trying to smooth-talk residents toward the edge of the privatization bluff. Many Illinoisans, once they find out about the issue, are refusing to let corporations take control of their water and dole it out only on their terms. They’re storming into public meetings not with pitchforks but with insistent hard questions. They come armed with damning facts about backroom shenanigans gleaned from citizen-led scrutiny of public records requests, as well as relentless social media reminders that the smell of money is in the air — one man satirically called the attempted privatization of his town’s sewer a “Turd Tax.”

So far, they’ve flushed the threat.

Privatization, which is sometimes preceded by the consolidation of a number of smaller water districts into a larger one, is being pushed by those who would have people believe that stripping their small towns for parts is a form of legitimate economic development that constitutes the only possible escape from the economic burden that the current water system has placed on tiny hamlets. Rosiclare mayor Roy Tolbert told Truthout he fell for that pitch in 2020, and along with the city council, his administration sold their formerly city-run fresh and waste water systems to Illinois American Water, a subsidiary corporation of American Water, for $600,000. “I hate, hate, hated to sell it,” he said.

Tolbert described it as the best bargain he could make on behalf of the system’s 350 water customers, who were staring down an irrational system designed to fail.

As Electricity Bills Rise, Activists Are Demanding Public Control of Utilities

“The way the loans are tied up is you’re supposed to be able to sell the water, and within 20 years you’re supposed to collect enough revenue off of that to put in a different fund to rebuild it again in 20 years,” Tolbert said. “But when you borrow, it might cost $5 million to do the job. 20 years from now, that $5 million job could cost $12 million.”

Water bills in Rosiclare have increased, but he still defends the town’s decision in economic terms. The loss of political autonomy is not top of mind.

“My bill is higher now. But if we kept it and borrowed money, our water bills would have been even higher than [Illinois] American Water’s,” said Tolbert.

Recognizing Tactics of Political Manipulation

Since 2013 — the year Illinois made it legal for corporate buyers to spread the cost of their acquisitions among all ratepayers — corporations have succeeded in taking over control of 61 water systems in the state.

As a result, there’s now been enough experience of corporate takeovers of public water assets in Illinois for many of the state’s water districts to understand that a temporary relief from a heavy burden ultimately translates into a painful loss and a bad deal for Illinoisans.

Since 2013 corporations have succeeded in taking over control of 61 water systems in the state.

Since 2013 corporations have succeeded in taking over control of 61 water systems in the state.

So when elected officials called a mass meeting to have a conversation about the benefits of consolidation, opponents identified it as an easily recognizable tactic of political manipulation. Communities in southern Illinois are facing this now, and are meeting the challenge with everyday heroism, homegrown Midwestern pluck, and the courage........

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