What do you do if you are unhappy with your water or sewer provider? Do you lodge a complaint? Usually, that is enough to resolve most issues.
Is there anything you can do if the bulk of your friends and neighbors have various complaints and want wholesale changes? Perhaps you can vote out city government members at the next election if the provider is Chickamauga, LaFayette or another city. If you are a customer who is served by the Walker County Water and Sewerage Authority, you will not have this option. WCWSA is governed by an unelected board. Its members are appointed by the Walker County Board of Commissioners. WCBOC Chairman Shannon Whitfield is the WCWSA board chairman after having appointed himself, just as his predecessor had done a number of times.
What if the situation is worse than a host of complaints? What if in the future there are contaminants found in the water supply that affect the public health? What if people suffer health consequences as a result? The recent history of WCWSA indicates that such a scenario is not unthinkable. If you were in this situation, you would probably be thinking about lawsuits. However, there is a problem with that. Ask the people of Flint, Mi., who witnessed this very scenario in heartbreaking clarity.
The citizens of Flint who were harmed by the poisoned water supply sued the government which operated the water system. The state claimed sovereign immunity as their defense. Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine that makes it very difficult to sue government entities. Thankfully, the citizens of Flint finally won their challenges against the sovereign immunity claims, which forced the city and state to offer a settlement. This took four years and hundreds of millions from the settlement paid to attorneys. In the end, the 8,000 families received less than $40,000 each.
Well, what can Walker County citizens do? Citizens have no way to effect change in management and policy or require accountability at WCWSA through the ballot box. They face long odds with any attempt in court. The unfortunate truth is there is not much citizens can do.
However, this can change. If the Flint water system had been private instead of government-run, the victims would have been able to hold the system accountable in court without the long fight against sovereign immunity.
WCWSA has always been a headache and will become even more problematic if Chattanooga wins its lawsuit against it. (The trial is scheduled for Feb. 22, 2022.) No one is happy with the services of WCWSA and many question some of the projects planned. (Like a $7 million+ water main up to McLemore on Lookout Mountain, three pump stations and a water tank.) The solution is one popular with limited government conservatives, free market libertarians and even former President Bill Clinton. It's a bipartisan solution. WCWSA should be privatized. Privatization can be done in a variety of ways, but ratepayers and citizens would always have a say. Compared to WCWSA today, the private company would be more accountable.
With $20 million in loans, WCWSA can only fund two of its planned projects (sewer redirection and water treatment plant) and does nothing to address the crumbling 429 miles of aging distribution infrastructure which lost 43 percent of all water produced in 2020 according to annual state water loss audit data. The percentage represents the non-revenue water as a percentage of the water supplied. This is the amount of water that is produced, but is lost before it reaches the end user as a result of leaks, thefts, waste, etc.
Across the United States, private water system losses in 2019 were less than half those of public water systems. It is due to the fact that private water providers have access to capital for upgrading or replacing failing infrastructure whereas public providers do not. Consumers save money because of this. They receive better service.
WCWSA should seek proposals from private companies or, better yet, hire an advisory firm to make sure the process is handled correctly. In Walker County, as well as other small water providers, privatization makes sense, but only when done properly. Accountability and transparency are crucial to making privatization successful.
One other point is worth mentioning. There is more power in the hands of citizens than most people know. The Georgia Constitution grants power to citizens to amend or repeal any county local act with the signatures of 10 percent of registered voters and a referendum vote. If officials refuse to even explore the idea and look at proposals, then the petition and referendum method is a fairly easy way for citizens to force the issue.
Let’s get the government out of the way and privatize Walker County Water and Sewerage Authority. Email me or reach out on social media to discuss how privatization makes sense for Walker County.
Elliot Pierce
elliotpierce1@gmail.com