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Water and Related News California legislation would measure how much water is bottled SFGate, September 24, 2008
How much of California's water is bottled? Legislation would let the public know. California is in the midst of a drought and could be on the verge of a water crisis. The past spring was among the driest on record and experts are predicting that this upcoming winter season will be similarly dry. There have been various proposals offered to address this situation ranging from dams, canals, conservation and underground storage. While some of these proposals are highly controversial, the state should also take basic steps to understand how and where our water is being used.
A water fight in Maine: Some are resisting Poland Spring's quest for more
Boston Globe, September 11, 2008
SHAPLEIGH, Maine - Walk about 100 yards down a well-worn path, past wild berry bushes, and take a left into leafy growth. Just a few more feet into the green canopy, and there they are, jutting out from the earth.
The war over water
- Poland Spring to voters: Dump moratorium
Journal Tribune, September 9, 2008
SHAPLEIGH — Poland Spring is urging Shapleigh residents to vote down a proposed moratorium Sept. 20 that would prohibit testing by the company on town-owned land on Mann Road. The company, in a prepared statement, said it believes a moratorium isn’t needed because it will be at least a year before any application for water extraction is submitted to the town.
What is best for McCloud?
Siskiyou Daily News, August 25, 2008
By McCloud Watershed Council
Nestlé’s cancellation of its contract with the McCloud Community Services District gives McCloud residents an opportunity to come together and decide how we want to move forward. With the contract gone, we have a clean slate and we can determine as a community what is best for McCloud.
Everyone knows industry needs oil. Now people are worrying about water, too
The Economist, August 21, 2008
“WATER is the oil of the 21st century,” declares Andrew Liveris, the chief executive of Dow, a chemical company. Like oil, water is a critical lubricant of the global economy. And as with oil, supplies of water—at least, the clean, easily accessible sort—are coming under enormous strain because of the growing global population and an emerging middle-class in Asia that hankers for the water-intensive life enjoyed by people in the West.
Wells selectmen set public hearing on water moratorium proposal
Sea Coast Online, August 14, 2008
WELLS, MAINE — Selectmen will hold a public hearing on Tuesday to determine whether a citizen group’s proposal for a 180-day moratorium on water extraction in town by large corporations should be placed on the November ballot.
Citizens reject proposed Nestle water contract at public meeting
Nestle (Poland Springs) argues case in Maine Supreme Court
McCloud CSD halts talk about Nestle contract
Mt. Shasta Herald, August 13, 2008
The McCloud Community Services District passed a motion during its regular meeting Monday night to cease all discussion concerning a water bottling contract with Nestle Water North America until another offer has been made.
Protecting the Great Lakes: victory and vigilance
Grand Rapids Press, August 10, 2008
Water shortages are becoming as common as kudzu and cowboy boots in the South and West. California is in a second year of serious drought. Global warming threatens to deplete rivers, lakes and streams in Georgia and elsewhere. And wily oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens is buying up water rights in the Texas Panhandle, on the reasonable assumption that H2O is the new black -- or clear -- gold.
Bottled water brands form single lobby group
Marketing Week, August 8, 2008
Evian, Nestlé Waters, Danone Waters and Highland Spring are joining forces to form a lobby group to tackle the backlash against the bottle water industry. The Natural Hydration Council will come into operation on September 1.
Food & Water Watch, Corporate Accountability International and Council of Canadians Endorse Global Water Crisis Film “FLOW” - Filmmaker Calls On Senators Obama and McCain to Bring the Water Crisis Into the Presidential Debate
NEW YORK, NY – August 7, 2008 – Today, several leading United States and Canada-based advocacy groups have joined forces to support the highly anticipated U.S. theatrical release of FLOW (www.flowthefilm.com) by Oscilloscope Pictures, a distribution company founded by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. The announcement was timed to coincide with Nestlé Company’s (VTX: NESN) plan to release its half-year results today and follows headlines detailing recent setbacks for Nestlé Waters’ original contract with McCloud, California to build a one million square foot bot tling facility. The coalition includes several organizations such as Food & Water Watch, Corporate Accountability International and the Council of Canadians.
Nestlé Waters cancels McCloud contract
Siskiyou Daily News, August 6, 2008
McCloud, Calif. - Nestlé Waters North America has announced that it will step out of the original contract that it made with the McCloud Community Services District (MCSD) to build a water plant in McCloud, according to a recent press release.
Good News for Conservation Advocates - Nestle Cancels Contract for McCloud Water Bottling Project
California Progress Report, August 6, 2008
The Protect Our Waters Coalition (composed of the McCloud Watershed Council, California Trout, and Trout Unlimited) is pleased to learn that Nestlé Waters North America has agreed to cancel its contract with the McCloud Community Services District (District) to build a water bottling facility in the town of McCloud.
Nestle Targets Aquifers and Springs in New England for Bottled Water Alternet, August 5, 2008
Over a half-billion dollars of Massachusetts' taxpayer money will be spent this year on clean drinking water program loans to communities, yet Beacon Hill has been strangely silent about -- and invested not one penny in defense of -- small- and often low-income rural towns that stand alone against what many see as a threat to their drinking water supplies: Swiss-based Nestlé Waters.
Bottled Water's Shocking Impacts and the Growing Opposition Huffington Post, August 5, 2008
We have forgotten about our closest source of water at home -- the tap. Yet one of the simplest ways to reduce our environmental impact, to save money (not a ton...yet!) and to free ourselves from shopping and storage hassle, is by saying goodbye to bottled water. A life cycle assessment commissioned by the Swiss Gas and Water Association traced the entire life cycle from water extraction to serving it up in a glass. International Coalition Emerges to Protect Great Lakes Waters Against Private Exploitation
July 31, 2008
CHICAGO - Yesterday the U.S Congress’s House Judiciary Committee approved the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between the 8 states of the Great Lakes Basin, which lays out takings guidelines from major water supplies in that area for use by large scale projects and private enterprise. Yet many of the exceptions outlined in the Compact are bad for consumers and the environment. A coalition between Food & Water Watch and the Council of Canadians has issued a set of recommendations in response to the Compact to ensure that water remains a public resource and is not subject to the exploitation of profit-hungry corporations.
Attorney General comes down on Nestle Water Woes
Siskiyou Daily News, July 30, 2008
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. has warned Nestle that the state will challenge the environmental plan for a bottled water plant in Siskiyou County if the company does not revise its contract to pump water from the McCloud River, according to a press release from the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California.
Nestle commits to long range study of McCloud watershed
Mt. Shasta News, July 30, 2008
On the same day that Nestle Waters North America received a 10 page letter dated July 28, 2008 from the State of California Attorney General warning them of a possible legal challenge to the proposed water bottling plant in McCloud, the company sent out a press release agreeing to a two to three year study and evaluation of the intended primary source of water for the project, Squaw Valley Creek.
Corporate Accountability’s statement regarding Attorney General Jerry Brown’s letter of warning
July 30, 2008
WASHINGTON - July 30 - Corporate Accountability International applauds California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr. for his recent letter to the Siskiyou County Planning Department. In his statement, Attorney General Brown recognizes that the proposed bottling plant – proposed to be the largest water bottling plant in the country – “even the scaled down proposal has the potential to significantly affect the important and unique natural resources of the McCloud River area.” The Attorney General also recognized the “serious deficiencies” of the previously proposed project.
Calif. AG cracks down on Nestle bottling plant
Associated Press, July 29, 2008
Sacramento, CA -- Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday said he will sue to block a proposed water-bottling operation in Northern California unless its effects on global warming are evaluated.
California cracks down on Nestle bottling plant
International Herald Tribune, July 30, 2008
SACRAMENTO, California: California's attorney general said Tuesday he will sue to block a proposed Nestle water-bottling operation in Northern California unless its effects on global warming are evaluated.
Brown warns Nestle about water plans
Legal Newsline, July 29, 2008
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - A controversial plan to pump pristine water from Northern California's Siskiyou County has now drawn the attention of state Attorney General Jerry Brown. Atty. Gen. Brown Warns Nestle Of Legal Challenge To Water Bottling Plant: Brown Warns Nestle Of Legal Challenge To Water Bottling Plant
Office of the Attorney General press release, July 29, 2008
SISKIYOU--Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today warned Nestle that California will challenge the environmental plan for a bottled water plant in Siskiyou county if the company does not revise its contract to pump water from the McCloud River.
“It takes massive quantities of oil to produce plastic water bottles and to ship them in diesel trucks across the United States,” Attorney General Brown said. “Nestle will face swift legal challenge if it does not fully evaluate the environmental impact of diverting millions of gallons of spring water from the McCloud River into billions of plastic water bottles,” Brown added.
Read the Attorney General’s letter to the Siskiyou County Planning Department by clicking here or on the image to the right.
The coalitionopposesNestlé’s current project proposal. Its member organizations are concerned about the impact the plant will have on McCloud’s environment and economy. Like the Attorney General, the coalition seeks to ensure that Nestle is held accountable to do everything possible to identify and to mitigate the plant’s negative environmental impacts.
Mt. Shasta's glaciers growing: Warming is bolstering ice on mountain, scientists say
Associated Press, July 27, 2008
While it's not California's tallest mountain, the tongues of ice creeping down Mt. Shasta's volcanic flanks give the solitary mountain another distinction. Its seven glaciers, referred to by American Indians as the footsteps made by the creator when he descended to Earth, are the only historical glaciers in the continental U.S. known to be growing.
Proposed water contract nixed
Kennebunk Journal Tribune, July 18, 2008
After six weeks of listening to questions and concerns of customers, the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District trustees voted unanimously to table any further action on the proposed contract to sell spring water to Poland Spri ng on Thursday.
Poland Spring permit: upheld Supreme Court supports LURC ruling on aquifer
Sun Journal, July 16, 2008
FARMINGTON - The state's highest court affirmed a Franklin County Superior Court's decision to uphold state land regulators' permitting of a commercial groundwater extraction station in Dallas Plantation.
The War over Water
The Wire, July 10, 2008
The battle to protect regional groundwater from corporate pumping took a curious turn recently when USA Springs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Folks at Save Our Groundwater were cautiously optimistic about the development, but they’re not getting their hopes up too high. The grassroots, volunteer organization has been fighting USA Springs for the better part of seven years, and it’s hard to say what will happen next.
Nestlé water plant? Not in our town, Enumclaw says Seattle Times, July 10, 2008
Last spring, in the small town of Enumclaw, a company came calling. What it wanted was water. One hundred million gallons a year, to be precise.
A word to the water wise
Well known in Canada for a variety of causes, Maude Barlow has become the Al Gore of the water world
Edmonton Sun, July 6, 2008
Maude Barlow is a surprisingly soft-spoken, humble presence. After reading her book Blue Covenant -- 218 pages of water scarcity stats that will scare the beejeezus out of you -- I'm half expecting to meet a Joan of Arc-hetype crusader, riding high atop a ridge on horseback, eyes darting wildly below for aquatic injustices.
Bottling plant looks to Orting after snubbing by Enumclaw
The News Tribune, July 6, 2008
The City of Enumclaw has upped the ante on what it means to be a “green-friendly” community by rejecting a bid by a Nestle corporation to build a 100 million-gallon water bottle plant there.
Proposed Nevada water pipeline project imperil communities, lifestyles
The Salt Lake Tribune, July 3, 2008
BAKER, Nev. - On moonless nights here in the Utah-Nevada borderlands of Snake Valley, the naked eye can see five planets, countless stars and the great swath of the Milky Way.
Climb the hill to Great Basin National Park and you can see the the nighttime glow of Las Vegas, whose leaders say their sprawling city must have the water under Snake Valley - or wither and die. And they are coming for it, making plans for a 285-mile pipeline to tap the aquifer that stretches from Salt Lake City to Death Valley to take the water south.
Marketing 'juggernaut' creating flood of bottled water: author
ABC News, July 3, 2008 Audio: US journo dives into bottled water industry 'coup' (The World Today)
It is one of the most remarkable marketing coups of the last quarter of a century- the explosion in bottled water sales in a country where a safer, better tasting alternative is available for a fraction of the cost on tap. The Unbottled Truth About Bottled Water Jobs
The $60 billion global bottled water industry has grown rapidly in recent years. To keep up with the expanding market, corporations are looking for new water sources. Once they identify good or easy targets, they come into communities, bottle their water, slap a corporate logo on it and sell it to stores across the country. The profits are great and the resource is cheap. The corporations benefit. The communities don’t.
Joining Hands Brings India's Water Issues to McCloud
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MWC Update Community groups challenge McCloud Community Services District Board on legality of Water System Master Plan
January 28, 2008
On January 16, 2008, attorneys for California Trout, Trout Unlimited, and the McCloud Watershed Council delivered an 18-page letter to the McCloud Community Services District Board questioning the legality of the Board's approval of a Water System Master Plan (WSMP). The letter cautioned that the WSMP was adopted in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), in part because it appears to be closely related to the Nestle Water Bottling Plant Project currently undergoing environmental review.
Atty. Gen. Brown Warns Nestle Of Legal Challenge To Water Bottling Plant: Brown Warns Nestle Of Legal Challenge To Water Bottling Plant
