THE COASTAL PACKET: Nestles' license to pump water from national forest expired 25 years ago

Monday, April 13

Nestles' license to pump water from national forest expired 25 years ago

Daily Koz - An investigation by the Desert Sun found that Nestle Waters North America's permit to transport water across the San Bernardino National Forest expired in 1988. The water is piped across the national forest and loaded on trucks to a plant where it is bottled as Arrowhead 100 percent Mountain Spring Water.

Nestlé is the #1 bottle water producer in the country and own the brands Arrowhead and Pure Life. The company's response? Don't worry, folks. Nestlé "monitors its water use and the environment around the springs where water is drawn."

The California drought has gotten so bad we've been warned there is only a one-year supply left in the reservoirs. In Sacramento, Nestlé has recently been under fire from environmental activists, calling the company's unregulated tapping of California aquifers a "corporate giveaway":

“The coalition is protesting Nestlé’s virtually unlimited use of water – up to 80 million gallons a year drawn from local aquifers – while Sacramentans (like other Californians) who use a mere 7 to 10 percent of total water used in the State of California, have had severe restrictions and limitations forced upon them,” according to the coalition.

“Nestlé pays only 65 cents for each 470 gallons it pumps out of the ground – the same rate as an average residential water user. But the company can turn the area’s water around, and sell it back to Sacramento at mammoth profits,” the coalition said.

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