Private Water Law
A blog about water resources and law
Category: Private v. public
The Organization of Water Utilities in California
This post gives an overview of the organization of water utilities in California. For this purpose, water utilities are defined as entities that own and operate public drinking water systems at the retail level. There are few sources of information about who…
Read MoreNew Legal Requirements for California Mutual Water Companies
Effective January 1, 2012, California law imposes new requirements on mutual water companies that own and operate a public water system. Adopted as Assembly Bill 54 (Solorio), and codified at several places in the California Corporations, Government, and Health and…
Read MoreWater Transfers by California Mutual Water Companies
I have been asked several times in the past few weeks whether California mutual water companies are authorized to transfer water to non-shareholders at a profit. It appears some activists have begun arguing that California Public Utilities Code § 2705…
Read MoreTap v. Bottled Water in the Private Sector
We often see critics linking together private water companies and bottled water as jointly promoting “commodification” of the world’s water supplies. While the differences should be fairly obvious between investor-owned utilities and companies that provide design, construction, operations and maintenance…
Read MoreThe California Water Bond, Private Profit and Public Benefit
Several commentators have recently criticized the proposed California water bond for allowing private companies to own, operate and profit from water infrastructure paid for with bond proceeds. These criticisms have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and California Progress Report,…
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Private Water Law 