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. 

Why you feel powerless against big corporations - and the one thing you need to flip the script

Big corporations are destroying our health. 

• They’re manufacturing harm (from tobacco to ultraprocessed food to fossil fuels) and manipulating our surroundings to profit them at the expense of our well-being (from car companies “insidiously shaping” cities for cars above all else to food companies creating the obesity crisis by shaping our food supply and environment). 

• They’re covering up the damage they do (Big Tobacco hid evidence about the dangers of smoking cigarettes, Big Pharma lied about how addictive their painkillers were, Big Oil scammed the public into thinking plastic would be recycled, NFL covered up concussions, Meta hid research about the negative impact of Instagram on teens, the list goes on). 

• And to add insult to injury, they’re blaming US - suggesting it is our lack of discipline and willpower that gets in the way of limiting our intake of drugs and foods and social media that they meticulously design to be addicting; that we need to watch our carbon footprint despite the fact that the largest companies are not only responsible for the vast majority of harmful emissions but lobby actively against laws that might help protect the planet; that we should just make different choices in environments that they have manipulated to make the choice that profits them the easiest - and sometimes the only - choice.  

Many of us recognize this. But we feel like there’s nothing we can do about it. 

It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of corporate power. Corporations and their leaders have billions (and billions) of dollars and direct lines of influence to our politicians. You might work for them and you almost certainly buy from them or invest in them. 

So, what’s one to do, right? 

Here’s little ol’ me on one side and this GIANT, powerful, rich corporation on the other. 

What’s the point in even trying to do anything? 

But here is where we need to flip the script. 

This is not an underdog story. 

This is a teamwork story.

Alone, yes, any one of us is relatively powerless to fight back against corporate greed. 

But TOGETHER, we can. 

Corporations are giant and powerful and rich because they’ve gamed the system and made us reliant on them. But ultimately, their profits come from our pockets and their power comes from those profits, along with policies stacked in their favor. 

If we come together as a team (in strategic, coordinated ways), we can stop lining their pockets and change the policies that make us reliant on them, allowing them to ruin our health, planet, and society in pursuit of more and more profit.  

So, what do we need to become a real team, fighting against corporate power and for community power? 

Think about the best sports teams in history. We need: 

• shared goals and coordinated strategy, 

• trust and connection, 

• clear roles and accountability, 

• a supportive, positive culture, 

• strong leadership. 

How do we get there? 

It starts with building trust and connection in our own neighborhoods and communities. Get together (yes, IRL!), listen with an open mind, find ways to help each other, and open up conversations to uncover shared goals. 

For those already organizing or taking political action as a team, it starts with getting more strategic and coordinated. What are you trying to change, what specific big ‘P’ (governmental) or small ‘p’ (organizational/institutional) policies need to shift, what set of coordinated, collective action can you help facilitate to make those shifts happen, and what roles and responsibilities can your team members commit to so that you can take those actions effectively and consistently? 

More broadly, we also need to consider what stands in our way of becoming a team and how to overcome or change that (neighborhoods designed to isolate us, schedules that leave no time for connection and community, a lack of local news to hold local policymakers accountable and investigate community problems - alone, we might not be able to change these things, but together, we can). We should also think more creatively about new ways to build this kind of team, how to bring more folks into these efforts, and how to sustain action. 

Together, we can reclaim our health, our planet, and our future. 

Let’s go.