Rural Communities Exploited by Nestlé for Your Bottled Water (AlterNet)

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Rural Communities Exploited by Nestlé for Your Bottled Water

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted May 30, 2007.



Bottled water costs way more than the few bucks you pay at the store. Across the U.S., rural communities are footing the bill for the booming bottled water industry. Nestlé's advance on a small town in California is the latest example.

Across the country, multinational corporations are targeting hundreds of rural communities to gain control of their most precious resource. By strong-arming small towns with limited economic means, these corporations are part of a growing trend to privatize public water supplies for economic gain in the ballooning bottled water industry.

With sales of over $35 billion worldwide in the bottled water market, corporations are doing whatever it takes to buy up pristine springs in some of our country's most beautiful places. While the companies reap the profits, the local communities and the environment are paying the price.

One of the biggest and most voracious of the water gobblers is Nestlé, which controls one-third of the U.S. market and sells 70 different brand names -- such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Perrier, Poland Spring and Ice Mountain -- which it draws from 75 springs located all over the country.

Nestlé's latest target is McCloud, located in the shadow of Northern California's snow-capped Mt. Shasta. The town of McCloud has worked hard to try to reinvent itself in recent years. McCloud is a former timber town that is learning how to stand on its own feet again after the lumber companies bottomed out and took off.

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Environmental implications

The McCloud River is one of the most beloved rivers in the state of California, explains Brian Stranko of the group California Trout, which works to protect the state's wild fish. "It is unique -- it doesn't matter if you like to fish or hike or walk -- it is a really pristine watershed of mixed conifers with amazing wildlife -- some of which is threatened or endangered."

Stranko and his group worry that Nestlé's project in McCloud will adversely affect the watershed and its aquatic species.

The aquifer is volcanic and porous. Aqua-colored glacial melt comes off Mt. Shasta and mixes with ancient groundwater from under the mountain as it bubbles up to the river. The McCloud River, from which Nestlé will be drawing, runs into the Shasta Reservoir 40 miles south. The reservoir is one of the biggest in the state and is a huge component of California's water supply. From there the water collects from several rivers and flows to the Sacramento River, feeding cities, towns and farms in the Sacramento Valley.

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Cal Trout, community groups and residents have a list of concerns about the draft. Nestlé was given the right to pump an unlimited amount of groundwater, but how much and from where is not known; the draft does not analyze the effect that a reduction in the river's water will have on fish, downstream habitats or area wells; and there were no reasonal alternative plans suggested, which is a requirement of CEQA. Residents also feel the studies that were conducted were insufficient. The traffic study that was done for only one day, a Sunday, outside the tourist season; the noise study was for only two weekends; and the ecological study was done over a period of months instead of the years that it would require to fully assess the effect on stream flow and surrounding areas.

Community members are also concerned that the study failed to consider what impact global warming may have on the area over the course of the 100 year contract. Their spring water comes from two small glaciers on the southern side of Mount Shasta. Scientists have studied a much larger glacier on the northern side of the mountain and believe that in anywhere from 25 to 100 years, the glacier will be gone. "But our glacier, being on the southern side with more exposure to the sun and smaller is probably more likely to be gone sooner than that," said Anderson. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/environment/52526/?page=1