Washington Post, Monday, August 12, 2002 Water's Flow From Private Hands
Thirsty, Growing States Turn to New Sources to Meet Demand By William Booth CADIZ, Calif. -- This is one big, dry state, and Keith Brackpool wants to slake its thirst. The politically connected British wheeler-dealer is pressing ahead with an ingenious plan to sell billions of gallons of drinking water to Southern California from his company's aquifer, buried here beneath the broiling badlands of the Mojave Desert. Contentious? They don't call them "water wars" for nothing. Brackpool has both serious friends and committed opponents. He has steered $250,000 into the campaign coffers of Gov. Gray Davis (D) and secured the services of former interior secretary Bruce Babbitt as a consultant for dealings in Egypt. Former Democratic congressman Tony Coelho serves as a board member. But Brackpool is now battling with the Sierra Club and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who fears CEO Brackpool's Cadiz Inc. will suck the aquifer dry and damage the fragile ecosystem of her beloved Mojave. But the thirsty states are booming with growth, and, as one hydrologist put it, "God is not making any more water." The challenges are not limited to California and the West. Water is increasingly seen as a limited commodity around the world, and now into the breach comes private enterprise -- to operate aging municipal water systems (in cities such as Atlanta and Indianapolis) and to sell water outright from farms to cities. Whether that means consumers will pay more for what comes out of the tap remains to be seen, but entrepreneurs are betting they'll make money. full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6603-2002Aug11.html
