The small community of Felton is going toe to toe with the nation's largest private water company, American Water, which bought Felton's water system in 2002. American Water serves some 18 million customers in 29 states, including California, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. The community of Felton voted overwhelmingly to buy their water system back, but the company refuses to sell. Now the people of Felton plan to use eminent domain to buy back their water system, but American Water has spent millions of dollars resisting.

Felton isn't the only community to battle American Water. The city of Chicago waited months for broken fire hydrants to be fixed; and communities in Ohio fought back rate increases for brown tap water from American Water. The community of Felton and American Water have their first eminent domain court hearing later this month. Read More and Listen to Audio