Atlanta, GA

In August 2002, citizens of Atlanta, GA, were fed up with Suez-owned United Water and gave the company an ultimatum: turn it around in 90 days or get out. While the contract, which began in 1999, had a history of scandal, ultimately it was performance that doomed United Water.

United Water intended Atlanta to be the model of what privatization should look like. The Suez-owned company wanted Atlanta to be the start of a corporate empire in the U.S. But instead of living up to the contractual agreements, United Water’s management resulted in a backlog of 14,000 work orders, delayed repairs, inadequate responses to emergencies, 400 lost jobs, charges to the city for work not done and United Water employees allegedly working on other contracts on Atlanta’s dime.

Still, only half of the promised savings were realized. And the city was losing millions of dollars because United Water wasn’t reading, installing or maintaining water meters frequently enough, nor was it collecting enough late bills. When the city requested United Water’s billing records, the company refused to release the full records.

When the mayor went under investigation for accepting funds from United Water in exchange for approving the contract, the decision to end the 20-year deal 16 years early seemed like an obvious one.