The Shock Doctrine 2: Here Come Da Judge

As we have opined on many a previous occasion in our Water War series....  Water is the single most important economic input to the global economy, and more specifically, to individual enterprises. 

The WHO says that every year more than 3.4 million people die as a result of water related diseases, making it the leading cause of disease and death around the world.

The Motown Water War rages on...  

DETROIT – The water wars here continue unabated, despite declarations of at least partial victory by some advocates and media. 

The issue has been brought to the United Nations. International protests against thousands of shut-offs to poor families, seniors, and disabled people have included deliveries of water by a Canadian caravan and by West Virginia coal miners.. 

Courageous protesters have twice blockaded the gates at Homrich Wrecking, putting their bodies on the line to stop the shut-off trucks from rolling. 

DWSD has long charged Detroiters higher sewerage rates to compensate for delinquencies, and additionally attached the delinquencies to property tax bills, meaning Detroiters can lose not only their water and children (to Child Protective Services), but also their homes. 

“We first lost control way back in 1977, when [U.S. District Court] Judge John Feikens put the Wastewater Treatment Plant under federal oversight while Coleman Young was mayor,” city retiree Cornell Squires recalled. 

DWSD had been under court oversight for 35 years due to previous EPA violations. In 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox abruptly terminated his oversight of the DWSD, one day before Keyvn Orr assumed his expanded powers under the replacement Emergency Manager law. 

Flouting Detroit’s City Charter, Cox then eliminated Detroit residents’ right to vote on the sale of DWSD assets, as well as the city’s privatization ordinance limiting the bid-out of public work. 

Bypassing Detroit’s mayor, Cox vested most executive control of DWSD in its director. The Water Board later appointed Sue McCormick of Ann Arbor to that position.

McCormick and the Water Board contracted with Toronto-based EMA, which recommended the elimination of 80 percent of DWSD’s workers. Large numbers have already been laid off.

While disenfranchising residents, Cox executed a broad-ranging attack on workers’ rights guaranteed by union contracts, Civil Service, and state law.

The work begun by Cox now continues in secret mediation sessions with water bondholders. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gerald Rosen... is the mediator, appointed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. 

"The Plan of Adjustment" includes payment of over $5 billion in uncontested debt to water bondholders, with more to be considered during the trial on the “Plan of Adjustment.”

The Nattering One muses... Worry not, the bond holders will make out like bandits as will the corporate cannibals.

The hallmark of advanced cultures which differentiates them from the third (3rd) world is their fresh water and waste water treatment infrastructure.

Seems like Detroit lost control over its greatest public asset, not the Automotive Industry, their water supply and water treatment infrastructure.

But how did this all happen?  The aforementioned Judge, an Emergency Manager (Kevyn Orr) and a "Plan of Adjustment". More to come in Part 3.