Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
5-2023
Capstone Advisor
Sarah Pralle
Honors Reader
Tom Perreault and Thomas Keck
Capstone Major
Political Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Abstract
My primary research questions are: first, what is the legal framework that allows corporations in the United States to source water for the sale of bottled water; and second, what are the environmental, economic, and political impacts of their actions in the affected communities? I answer these questions by exploring the variety of state laws that corporations are utilizing to access water sources, collecting data on all fifty states. I then focus on three communities in different U.S. states, focusing on regions with varying legal structures in place. The communities I focus on are Fryeburg, Maine;Osceola County and Mecosta County, Michigan;and Hood River County, Oregon. I examine the environmental, economic, and political impacts corporations are having on these communities, and offer a policy recommendation for further regulation of corporate access to water resources in the U.S.
Recommended Citation
Marcell, Mandalin, "Should Water be Commodified? An Analysis of Government Regulation of Corporate Access to U.S. Water Supplies" (2023). Honors Capstone Projects - All. 1117.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1117
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
