<body><div>Oct. 14 the UW-Superior Changemakers hosted a public open forum to discuss the issue, how it affects citizens, how local government is reacting to it, and to take questions about the idea of the City of Superior acquiring the ownership of water owned and used by citizens.The City of Superior has been looking into this process for several years now, especially with the knowledge that Superior is the last city in the state of Wisconsin to not have public acquisition of water, and Superior has the highest water rates in the state as well.Currently water in the city and township of Superior is owned through the BlackRock, Inc. corporation, a Minnesota company that owns the water in Superior through acquisitions of other companies.For the first few years of BlackRock, Inc. owning the water within Superior, they have limitations in their ability to make a large number of changes. With that time ending next Christmas, that means that BlackRock, Inc. has the ability to start large numbers of layoffs for employees, increase rates for customers, and start decreasing services.Water is incredibly important, and there is no lack of water here on the shores of Lake Superior, which is part of the reason why this water acquisition is so powerful. Superior Mayor Jim Paine expanded on this issue, saying, “Access to water is becoming more and more difficult for many cities across the country and across the world.”When it comes to the logistical issues of this, Mayor Paine said, “You don’t have a choice in water; you have to have it. You have to pay for it.”More than that, Mayor Paine said, “Waters the most valuable resource in the world. Theres nothing that comes close to the value of water, not gold, not iron ore, or diamonds. Nothing is more valuable than water.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3usbit_1GxBsO5I00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3usbit_1GxBsO5I00" width="2001" height="1507" ><figcaption>(Left to Right) Superior Council Member Garner Moffat along with Superior Mayor Jim Paine during an open forum public discussion about the acquisition of Superior’s water, excited to hear public and student discussion. ( Emily Tews )</figcaption></figure>A lot of current public concern with this issue comes down to whether or not Superior Citizens and the city itself are going to be able to handle the cost of this. City Councilman Garner Moffat shared, “When we look at buying the water utility, a lot of what we’re buying is debt that we already owe because there’s no other water source, there’s no other revenue source, and we can just refinance that with our ability to borrow money.”What people are paying for their water bills should stay the same and might even go down due to the city’s ability to use a revenue bond to pay for any debt that they would take on from buying the water system, along with upkeep, and the system would pay itself off with time, through people paying their water bills.Mayor Paine thoroughly explaining this, added, “I can say this pretty boldy at this point. Folks, we can afford this.”Another argument is that the private sector is better equipped to handle this issue, and when asked about the private versus public sector debate when it comes to water utility, Councilman Mofat said, “It’s the private sector, just let them handle it, because they can do things cheapest and, like, maybe, if it was unfettered capitalism and there was actual competition…the best parts of capitalism in this scenario, are gone, they don’t exist.”Mayor Paine shared similar sentiments when it comes to how and why the public should handle this issue. “This is something where in every other case, the public is doing this. They’re doing it more affordably; they’re doing it better… it’s a fundamental human right. You should own your own water. And if I wanted to make you mad, you’re the only ones that don’t. Everybody else has this right; they control it,” he said.This issue is one that is important for the public to start paying attention to now, with a public vote being necessary for further action on April 6, 2027.If the public vote ends in a yes than the city will do more work to be able to price out the cost of buying the system over from BlackRock, Inc. and making the decision of whether or not the city will actually move forward with the process for a public acquisition of water.</div></body>

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Oct. 14 the UW-Superior Changemakers hosted a public open forum to discuss the issue, how it affects citizens, how local government is reacting to it, and to take questions about the idea of the City of Superior acquiring the ownership of water owned and used by citizens. The City of...

Superior’s Possible Water Acquisition

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Oct. 14 the UW-Superior Changemakers hosted a public open forum to discuss the issue, how it affects citizens, how local government is reacting to it, and 

Superior’s Possible Water Acquisition

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