WEST VIRGINIA, AT THE BOTTOM, IS GIVING IT AWAY AGAIN - Water Rights Is Most Precious Commodity

(12/22/2002)

By Bpb Weaver During the mid-seventies I spent a day with a water resource engineer who practiced his profession in New Mexico. The man, a former resident of Lewis County, died a short time later. His passionate convictions, etched in my memory, were about water and the State of West Virginia. Simply put, he said in the 21st century it will be the state's most precious commodity, with our countless streams and rivers and the thousands of valleys which have the potential to store rain. Today, like all our natural resources, we are selling our water rights to large multi-national corporations, to be left at the bottom of America's financial heap, a place reserved for mountaineers. I am amazed about the lack of outrage, the selling of our souls, livelihoods and futures to the global market, just because our government says it will be good for us. Elected officials have expressed concern international trade law may take precedent over the sale of American-West Virginia Water to a German investment group. Attorney General Darrell McGraw is continuing to pursue the issue after the state's PSC said the deal could move ahead. READ the Charleston Gazette story W.VaWater Already Siphoned By Neighbors Sunday Gazette-Mail

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