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Article: Water woes: private companies raise the rates on those who can least afford it.(California American Water Co.)
- Article from:
- Colorlines Magazine
- Article date:
- June 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Color Lines Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Rebecca Trujillo first learned that a multinational corporation had bought her local water system when she got a bill. Like other residents in Chualar, a community of farm workers in Salinas Valley, California, Trujillo was used to paying a monthly flat rate of $21 for water. But in October 2004, she got a bill for over $200. Worried that her pipes might be leaking, she dialed the customer service number, and a phone rang in Alton, Illinois. The voice on the other end of the line, she would later learn, belonged to an employee of RWE-Thames Water. Based in Germany, RWE-Thames is the third largest private water corporation in the world.
Over the past 10 years, ...