Charter Water

I am fortunate to live in a hamlet where the quality of the water flowing from my household tap is labeled “superior.”  I know that superior means there are still harmful contaminants, chemicals and bacteria in the water, just not a high enough percentage to downgrade the label.  Regardless, I drink, cook, bathe and wash my car with the local water without thinking twice about it.  My local government provides my water.  I do not really study the annual water quality report because it includes information I do not want to know.  The City has jurisdiction over water production and water treatment and they appear to be spending our tax dollars and user fees wisely on our water.

What if that were not true?  What if you lived somewhere where the water quality was suspect?  The City of Houston has the 4^th worse water quality of large cities in the US based on the number of contaminants and pollutants found in the tap water.  That is horrible.  Something must be done.  This is not just a health issue; this is another example of the overt failure of government to fulfill its required duties. 

So, how do we improve the water quality in cities and burbs where the quality is sub-par?  We could invest more in those governmental services.  That is a rational approach.  So no, we must turn to the private sector to improve governmental services.  We need charter water. 

People should have a choice when it comes to water.  If when everyone turns on their tap the water all comes from the same source then there is no choice for consumers.  The wealthy have always had choice in that they can buy bottled water and install purification systems on the incoming water line.  The poor have no such choice.  We know the poor suffer more from the effects of poor nutrition due to the foods and water they consume.  We know the poor tend to cluster in large metropolitan areas.  We know racial minorities are growing in the large metropolitan areas.  Offering water choice is by definition American, it should be a civil liberty, it is a civil rights issue.  The private sector must intervene to improve this governmental function.  In no way should we consider spending more money in the areas of poor performance.  That only works for defense spending and highway spending and health care and the private sector.  Hence, we must have charter water. 

Here is what we will do.  Private sector companies may sign a charter and seek governmental approval to provide charter water in any given community.  These companies will not be required to have any background or expertise or training in the provision of water or the measurement of water quality.  Once approved, the charter water company will develop an alternative water source, will lay parallel pipe, and will develop an alternative treatment process.  Families who wish to receive charter water may make that choice, but the number of families eligible to receive charter water will be limited.  Further, the charter water company will not be forced to comply with all the state and federal mandates regarding water quality.  We will simply know that charter water is better because it is a private sector function. 

There are a couple of other things we must do.  How will we pay for the new charter water companies?  How will we pay for the installation of a parallel water system in each community?  We will re-direct tax dollars from the city water department to the charter water developers.  We will re-direct collected fees from the city water department to the charter water developers.  This will reduce the city’s ability to continue to fund city water as before, but it will create consumer choice and that makes it worth it.  Not only will it create choice, it will provide jobs and revenue to private sector entrepreneurs in an area that has not been open to them before.  Imagine requiring that governmental revenues be spent on governmental processes when we can create revenue for the private sector from those same governmental revenues.

Admittedly, the money spent on city water will decrease as the money spent on charter water increases. And, admittedly no city water department has too many employees and too much money.  No one in city water departments is making a fortune.  They are public servants.  Charter water developers, however, will make a financial killing because they will not have to follow the same guidelines as the city water department.  Charter water will be cheaper to operate.  Of course, every now and then someone will sneakily test the quality of water from the charter water folks and reveal that it is the same or worse than city water.  That won’t matter because it is choice!  It is private sector production!  It is part of a much needed national water reform effort!  It is civil rights issue!  We must make city water departments operate with fewer funds so that private sector charter water companies can implement their optional water service as a for profit enterprise.  City water departments are now in a setting where they must compete for water consumers.  Of course, they will have fewer funds to do so, and the measures of their successes are much higher, and we are wasting a ton of money duplicating efforts.  None of that matters.  We are busting the monopoly on water production historically held by the local government.  Families may now choose, even though those families probably do not have a clue how to measure water quality.  Further, we can accelerate their selection of charter water companies by continuing to lambast the city water for its poor quality.

This makes so much sense we should consider establishing charter police departments, charter fire departments, charter highway departments, etc., etc.  Why when you dial 9-1-1 should you be stuck with only one law enforcement agency, one ambulance service, one fire department?  Where is your choice?  Everywhere a governmental agency is solely responsible for providing a service we should implement a private sector alternative that provides citizens choice, even if it means the governmental service has reduced funding while measured by higher standards than the charter companies and the charter companies must start from scratch to develop a parallel infrastructure and personnel to provide the service.  When all is said and done, governmental services will decline due to reduced funding and bad press, and charter services will increase making many entrepreneurs incredibly wealthy for providing parallel and worse quality products funded by tax payers.

Why, if this works as well as I think it will for water, police, fire, etc. we could even consider starting charter schools along the same principles and cast the rationale as providing choice!  Well, that may be going too far.