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RWE-Thames Water/American Water Works

Alert! See our updated and expanded profile of RWE-Thames that has just been released! Click here to view this PDF document.

Link to Cal-Am/RWE Water Watch

Thames Water has topped lists of worst polluters in England and Wales for two of the past three years. In case after case, regulators and magistrates found that Thames was aware of conditions that led to raw sewage discharges and could have easily prevented the pollution. But putting public health and the environment at risk, and a willingness to plead guilty and pay the occasional fine, appears to be integrated into Thames’ corporate culture, and perhaps its business strategy.

Thames’ pollution-friendly business model is being exported to the rest of the world as part of the increasing concentration and consolidation of transnational corporations pushing to privatize the world’s water.

Thames Water was fully acquired by the German energy conglomerate RWE AG in January 2003. RWE is one of the world’s largest energy giants with more than 640 subsidiaries worldwide and annual revenues of more than $50 billion. RWE is in turn acquiring American Water Works through Thames Water—the largest publicly held U.S.-based water utility with 16 million customers in 29 states and three Canadian provinces. Thames is the operational manager of RWE’s international water business, including the management of the U.S. properties owned by American Water Works. Thames/RWE is gaining yet more control of U.S. water and wastewater services by entering into an agreement with Operations Management International (OMI), a Denver (US)-based firm. The corporate web is spun.

Read the report:
Corporate Profile: RWE-ThamesWater/American Water Works  [57 KB]

In the News:
2005
July 18: Paying for Thames Water's failings 
July 14: Kentucky American sues to block vote 
July 14: Plugging water leaks could supply half a million new homes 
June 13: RWE doesn't have city's interests at heart 
June 8: Legal hassling - Don't force citizens to sue city for water vote
May 22: Getting to know RWE - Local utility a cog in hardball game
April 29: American Water sub sues Kentucky for Rate Increase
April 26: Thames Water fined £60,000 for polluting Oxfordshire brook
February 18: Thames Water caught short - fined £50,000 
February 8: Undetected leak led to Stanford Brook pollution 
January 20: Thames Water fined for polluting brook 

2004
December 4: Thames Water fined for polluting Hendon brook 
October 18: Thames Water fined for fish kill 
October 1: Thames Water fined for sewage in stream 
August 4: Raw sewage floods London's River Thames
July 30: Strategy calls for new offerings at American Water

2003
November 4: Jakarta unit drains Thames cash
August 23: Private droughts: The poor are not profitable, and foreign firms are pulling the plug
July 30: Repeat offenders take the shine off pollution reductions
April 29: Thames Water reported for 'misappropriation'
March 24: Thames Water ready to soak Londoners
February 27: Competition authority to keep tabs on E.ON and RWE  
February 7: German Giant Taking Over American Water Supply

2002
December 19: Thames defender not objective or qualified
December 8: RWE: German conglomerate, determined to explode onto the U.S. water scene
August 12: Conglomerates see gold in water
August 11: Top bosses 'hijacking' eco-summit 
August 6: Lobby groups query Thames Water pay 
January 17: RWE Announces the Acqusition of American Water Works

2001
October 1: Thames Water top UK polluter, says govt body

2000
February 22: Water firm fined for flooding homes with sewage

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