After a six-year battle with California-American Water, a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation Rheinisch-Westfsches Elektrizitwerk Aktiengesellschaft [RWE], a town in Northern California called Felton and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District manage and own their own water. Their model, Friends for Locally Controlled Water [FLOW], shows how American citizens band together and create communities where water is locally controlled.
Their website includes poetry about water. Go Felton for including poems as part of the conversation about water rights. Above is a photo of a theatrical production.
Bluegrass, Kentucky and Monterey, California are two other towns spending millions of dollars to extablish local ownership of water from multinational corporations. Felton bought back their water for $10.5 million. RWE Aktiengesellschaft reports annual worldwide sales of water at $60 billion.
