How Pittsburgh fought a private water giant - and won
Pittsburgh handed control of its water supply to a private multinational corporation, Veolia, in 2012 (yes, the same Veolia that was later sued by the state of Michigan for its role in the Flint water crisis). Over the next several years, Veolia made decision after decision that prioritized profits over safety and health - leading to high lead levels in the water, increasingly expensive water bills and major billing errors, boil advisories and water shutoffs (which were concentrated in mostly Black neighborhoods).
A class action lawsuit and public pressure led the city to end its relationship with Veolia, but the crises of lead contamination and unaffordable water persisted. The Mayor sought to once again privatize the city’s water, this time with Peoples Gas (and while the city was exploring this partnership, the Mayor’s chief of staff went to work for Peoples Gas - a typical example of the revolving door politics that corrupts our systems).
Enter Pittsburgh United. This coalition of community, labor, faith, and environmental organizations had already been engaged with the city’s water authority around a clean rivers campaign, and separately, had been working on expanding affordable housing with the very same communities now most impacted by water shutoffs and rising water costs.
This positioned the coalition well on two key fronts:
Building a diverse coalition to keep water a public good: They were able to convene community groups from across the city (many of whom were already part of their existing campaigns around clean rivers and affordable housing) to organize the “Our Water Campaign” to keep the city’s water public. The coalition organized community members to knock on doors and connect with community members about their water bills and water quality, attend board meetings of the city water authority, provide public comments about community needs, and widely communicate the desire to keep the city’s water public. The coalition also included a wide range of groups and advocates that cared not just about water, but housing, economic justice, and environmental justice - this both made them a larger team and made others in the community and city council pay more attention to them.
Playing the inside-outside game: The coalition recognized the importance of finding allies inside government and knew from its work on clean rivers that at least some employees within the state water authority were both unhappy with Veolia’s management and cared about environmental justice. By working with the state water authority, the coalition was able to get them to create community advisory committees (“an accountability model…by which ordinary people can oversee the public water utility”) and agree to key changes like flexible payment plans, full (rather than partial) replacement of lead water lines, and a moratorium on water shutoffs (for unpaid bills) during the winter.
In other words, community members came together as a team. They had trust and connection built over time, including working on other problems before the water crisis even happened. They had coalition leadership to provide guidance and coordination. They had a defined goal and a strategic, collective plan they put into motion together.
Through their efforts, Pittsburgh residents were able to reclaim their water and send private corporations focused only on profits packing.
And they’re not the only ones. Here at GASLIT, we’ll continue to bring these community success stories to you.
Because together, we can.
This post is a summary of the case study, “Water as Public Good: Pittsburgh’s Our Water Campaign,” published by Demos and Pittsburgh United in 2022. Check out Demos’s Economic Democracy Case Studies for more stories of communities reclaiming power from corporations and what it takes to win.