About Private Water Service Providers

Serving the Public as Responsible Stewards of Public Resources

The vast majority of Americans receive water service from community water and wastewater utilities. However, it is less known that many of these systems are either privately owned utilities or are owned by a municipality but managed by a private company in a public-private partnership.

Privately owned water utilities, most of which are drinking water utilities, can trace their history back to nearly the beginning of the nation. Today, through sound business practices and experience, privately owned water utilities are able to provide safe, reliable drinking water to their customers at rates comparable to municipal utilities. Privately owned systems are subject to public health and environmental regulation at the state and Federal level, as well as economic regulation at the state level by the various State Public Utility Commissions which oversee and set water rates.

Management contract or public-private partnership arrangements between municipalities and private companies have become popular since the 1970s. Today, more than 2,000 government entities contract with private companies to provide water and/or wastewater service. The fact that more than 93 percent of these public-private partnerships are renewed annually indicates the popularity of public-private partnerships with municipalities.