Last week my town overwhelmingly voted NOT to sell our water to the multinational corporation Aquarion who owns almost all of Connecticut’s water (the Aquarion website states they own the water of 47 Connecticut towns and cities; a town official here told me our town is one of only two hold-outs.)

Aquarion offered my town 7.2 million dollars, which is hard to turn down when our infrastructure needs a half million dollars worth of repairs.

I believe water will soon be the next oil we will fight wars over.  I think losing public control of a shared, essential natural resource into corporate hands (especially offshore ones) is a major mistake.

With many cynics around feeling like this sale was inevitable, it was a delightful surprise when the polls closed and the vote came in with a huge, decisive majority voting against it.

I am not deluded into thinking this issue is closed forever, but the fact that my neighbors and I had the gumption to flatly refuse this offer feels empowering. It is also encouraging: are people waking up a bit?

Years ago I recommended a documentary titled FLOW (For Love Of Water); I hear now that I need to see one called Blue Gold…