By Brittany Hanson/Garden Grove Journal
Where does water come from? The sky? The ground? Or the water company? For Stanton the Southern California Water Company, now Golden State Water, provides the water services to citizens of the city and to other communities nearby.
However, at Tuesday night’s city council meeting the city council discussed looking into making water a public service rather than private.
The contract with Golden State Water is over 70 years old. In some surrounding areas, such as the city of Big Bear Lake and the city of Claremont, private water services have either been taken or investigated.
In Big Bear, the water services system in place was first offered to be bought, was later then condemned and then taken by the city and made public.
In Claremont, the city went into voluntary negotiation of sale for their portion of SCW. The buyout of the systems and operations would have cost around $100 million to fund.
Claremont did not decide to pursue a buyout, which would have included more expenses for legalities and refurbishing.
Council member David Shawver insisted that the potential was there to buy the water company and that it could be done inexpensively. Shawver said that the revenues from water dues at current rates were a cause of complaint from citizens and that he felt the city could do it better.
He also mentioned that they could potentially work on an agreement with Anaheim to manage the systems.
“I think this is worth looking into,” said council member Carol Warren, “ We should explore our options.”
Council member Brian Donahue expressed that he wanted to know if this was really as large of a complaint from the citizens of the city.
Mayor Ed Royce Sr. was dubious on the topic.
“Do we really want to take on another battle?” said Royce.
Shawver argued that the water company was making millions off the people and that the money could be used publicly to help the water services for Stanton.
“This issue really needs more study,” said council member Al Ethans.
