Comment Re: And the almond trees die. (Score 1) 417
When I grew up the water was handled by a private company, Citizens Utilities. The water was undrinkable and came out of the tap brown. The emergency water supply was from an old leaky tank up on a hillside that provided 3 minutes worth of water. Oh, and the water costs a fortune. The residents passed a bond measure to buy out Citizens Utilities, spending a fortune to do it. They had to rip out and replace the entire system when they switched to the county water system. The county water was much better and a lot less expensive. The county system also makes use of RO of brackish water to help supplement the water supply and makes an active effort to refill the underground aquifer where possible, though the last few years of drought have made that all but impossible to do. The county buys water and passes on the cost to the users.
Some things can be privatized just fine, others not so well. The problem becomes the monopolies involved and how they skimp on maintenance and do everything they can to maximize profits. We have this problem with PG&E. They have a horrible record of maintenance and even though most power is generated using natural gas, which is at record lows in terms of cost we have about the highest electricity rates in the country. It was the same thing when we had Citizens Utilities for water.