I don’t know for sure, but one of the most shocking things to me has been the presence of private water companies outside of municipalities completely screwing their customers left and right (I live in Texas).
I had a friend who moved her parents up to a new development a couple hours north of Austin, and just outside the city limits. The couple thought they’d save a ton of money not having to pay city property taxes. The tradeoff meant that they didn’t get city water, their water was supplied by a private company.
Their new water bill was significantly higher, and they had no real recourse to fight their new rates. Everyone needs running water. It’s the perfect product to hold your customers captive with, and that company makes so much money exploiting that situation.
We moved to a town with no municipal trash pickup. There are three private companies I can use. I pay $40/mo for one barrel of trash, and one of recycling every two weeks. Instead of one truck picking up trash on a route, there are at least three trucks picking up trash and driving through our neighborhood. In this instance, each of us negotiating independently with the vendor, and having 3x the traffic, doesn't make sense to me.
Water supply is a natural monopoly—if a private company has built the infrastructure, they may own the pipes.
Competition is unlikely for two important reasons: first, because you really don't want 23 different sets of pipes running everywhere (or the ground being dug up 23 separate times, with the attendant collateral damage, including to the existing pipes); second, because the cost and red tape involved with running your own pipes is a huge barrier to entry.
That, plus the obvious fact that everyone needs water to live, is exactly why water should always and everywhere be a public utility, operated for the public good.
I had a friend who moved her parents up to a new development a couple hours north of Austin, and just outside the city limits. The couple thought they’d save a ton of money not having to pay city property taxes. The tradeoff meant that they didn’t get city water, their water was supplied by a private company.
Their new water bill was significantly higher, and they had no real recourse to fight their new rates. Everyone needs running water. It’s the perfect product to hold your customers captive with, and that company makes so much money exploiting that situation.