Something must be said about the Mountain Voices Alliance Water Forum last night. I only went because it was a slow news week, judging by the Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting, and going to a public meeting requires less exertion than reviewing a book or critiquing a thick stack of papers.
The meeting started as usual, but after a couple hours, things got, um, diverse. Most in the room were afraid of privatization, because capitalists would build cheaper facilities, employ fewer workers, produce lower-quality water, jack up water rates, and ignore public complaints about their oppressive monopoly. Furthermore, privatizing Asheville’s water system would set it up for Big Oil to buy it and start a fracking operation in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Then, others were convinced that Representative Tim Moffitt was stirring the pot because Art Pope and the Koch brothers were pulling his strings with bribes and spoon-fed bills.
Amazing was the partisanship demonstrated. Democrats wanted Asheville to retain control of the water system, and Republicans didn’t. The line of demarcation was pronounced by the county commissioners’ crossover to Asheville’s point of view. My favorite conspiracy theory, though, is that high-volume, out-county (a Yankee word) water users that can afford lobbyists want to use their power of pull to keep their rates low.
