Corporate criminal Nestle extracting California's water

Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of California Drinking Water

Anti Media,

20 August, 2015

Nestle has found itself more and more frequently in the glare of the California drought-shame spotlight than it would arguably care to be — though not frequently enough, apparently, for the megacorporation to have spontaneously sprouted a conscience.

Drought-shaming worked sufficiently enough for Starbucks to stop bottling water in the now-arid state entirely, uprooting its operations all the way to Pennsylvania. 

But Nestle simply shrugged off public outrage and then upped the ante by increasing its draw from natural springs — most notoriously in the San Bernardino National Forest — with an absurdly expired permit.

Because profit, of course. Or, perhaps more befittingly, theft. But you get the idea.

Nestle has somehow managed the most sweetheart of deals for its Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water, which is ostensibly sourced from Arrowhead Springs — and which also happens to be located on public land in a national forest.

In 2013, the company drew 27 million gallons of water from 12 springs in Strawberry Canyon for the brand — apparently by employing rather impressive legerdemain — considering the permit to do so expired in 1988.

But, as Nestle will tell you, that really isn’t cause for concern since it swears it is a good steward of the land and, after all, that expired permit’s annual fee has been diligently and faithfully paid in full — all $524 of it.

And that isn’t the only water it collects. Another 51 million gallons of groundwater were drawn from the area by Nestle that same year.

There is another site the company drains for profit while California’s historic drought rages on: Deer Canyon. Last year, Nestle drew 76 million gallons from the springs in that location, which is a sizable increase over 2013’s 56 million-gallon draw — and under circumstances just as questionable as water collection at Arrowhead.

This extensive collection of water is undoubtedly having detrimental effects on the ecosystem and its numerous endangered and threatened species, though impact studies aren’t available because they were mysteriously stopped before ever getting underway.

In fact, the review process necessary to renew Nestle’s antiquated permit met a similarly enigmatic termination: once planning stages made apparent the hefty price tag and complicated steps said review would entail, the review was simply dropped. Completely. Without any new stipulations or stricter regulations added to the expired permit that Nestle was ostensibly following anyway — though, obviously, that remains an open question.

In 2014, Nestle used roughly 705 million gallons of water in its operations in California, according to natural resource manager Larry Lawrence. That’s 2,164 acre-feet of water — enough to “irrigate 700 acres of farmland” or “fill 1,068 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” as Ian James pointed out in The Desert Sun.

IN-DEPTH: Forest Service Official Who Let Nestle Drain California Water Now Works for Them

RELATED: Nestle Being Sued for $100 Million Dollars Over Hazardous Lead in Food

Though there is no way to verify exactly how much Nestle must spend to produce a single bottle of Arrowhead spring water, the astronomical profit is undeniable fact: the most popular size of a bottle of Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water (1 liter) retails for 89¢ — putting the potential profit for Nestle in the tens of billions.

Activists have called for a boycott of Nestle Waters and all Nestle products until they are held accountable for their actions in California.

There is much more to be revealed in future articles as the investigation into Nestle’s reckless profit-seeking during California’s unprecedented drought continues.

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This is the second in our series of investigations into Nestle’s role in extracting massive amounts of groundwater in California during the record drought. The third in this series will delve further into Nestle’s corrupt business practices. Make sure you don’t miss the rest of this series! Subscribe to our newsletter here.

This article (Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of California Drinking Water) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish andtheAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, emailedits@theantimedia.org.

Claire Bernish joined Anti-Media as an independent journalist in May of 2015. Her topics of interest include social justice, police brutality, exposing the truth behind propaganda, and general government accountability. Born in North Carolina, she now lives in Ohio. Learn more about Bernish here!

Someone is doing something about this in Oregon

Woman's five-day fast outside Cascade Locks City Hall targets Nestle deal

Oregon Live,

20 August, 2015

Anna Mae Leonard hasn't done much talking since she began sitting outside Cascade Locks City Hall on Monday.

Leonard, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, has been there from sunup to sundown, dressed in full Columbia River longhouse regalia, trying to sleep. 

It's the best way to avoid pangs of hunger and thirst during a five-day fast that permits no food or drink, other than a ceremonial sip from Oxbow Springs each morning and night.

The cardboard signs taped to a tree near Leonard's roadside blanket do the talking for her.

"Honor The Treaty of 1855," one sign reads.

The other: "Five Days of NO Water! NO FOOD! FAST in Protest of Nestlé."

The messages are directed toward any Cascade Locks city official who might glance out the window from the city administration building across the street.

"I want the council to think about what a world would be like without water," Leonard said Wednesday. "I want them to look at me suffer and think about how the fish will suffer without that cold spring water."

Nestlé wants to gain access to Oxbow Springs, a forested spring just outside the small Columbia River Gorge town that supplies water to a state salmon hatchery.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife owns water rights at Oxbow Springs. In April, the department's leaders agreed to swap a portion of their water rights at the spring in exchange for an equal portion from the Cascade Locks municipal water system.

In turn, Cascade Locks would sell the spring water to Nestlé, which would bottle and sell 100 million gallons of it each year to customers throughout the Northwest.

Nestlé's proposed $50 million bottling plant could bring as many as 50 jobs and double the city's property tax base. Proponents of the plant have lauded its economic benefits, but others have questioned the decision to welcome a company with a spotty track record on the environment and human rights.

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs have joined the growing list of Oregon environmental groups and politicians who have expressed concern about Nestlé's plans in Cascade Locks.

The tribes' chairman, Eugene Greene Jr., penned a letter in May urging Gov. Kate Brown to step in. Tribal members have staged protests in Cascade Locks and taken to social media to rally supporters.

On Wednesday, Leonard, a Cascade Locks resident, said she hopes her five-day fast hammers tribal leaders' message home. More than a dozen fellow activists, including Cascade Locks residents, environmentalists and tribal fishermen, joined her outside City Hall in a protest that drew honks from passing cars and complaints from neighbors who support Nestlé.

Oxbow Springs drains into Herman Creek, a popular fishing spot for recreational and tribal fishermen. A research group commissioned by Nestlé to study impacts of bottling water from the springs found doing so would not harm salmon in the creek.

Leonard doesn't believe it. The study was finished years ago, she said, before Oregon was in an historic drought that has left waterways throughout the state warm and shallow.

Bad salmon runs are devastating for the tribal fishermen who for years have sold their catch under the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks.

"Nestlé already has millions, they don't need our water," said Ernest J. Edwards, a Yakama Nation fisherman who protested with Leonard on Wednesday. "Our water is for the salmon."

Diana Enright, a spokeswoman for the state water department, said the agency could issue a preliminary decision on the water rights swap later this summer. At that point, anyone can protest the decision within 30 days. Protests with potential legal standing could trigger a hearing before an administrative law judge.

Leonard said she expects tribal treaty fishing rights in the Columbia River to come into play.

-- Kelly House

To see the Facebook of NO Nestle in Cascade Locks GO HERE