Mike Heuer | Natural Blaze
Image from www.naturalblaze.com.
SACRAMENTO (CN) – Despite devastating drought, the federal government allows Nestle to bottle and sell millions of gallons of water from a Southern California creek in a national forest with an expired permit, environmentalists claim in Federal Court.
The Center for Biological Diversity and others sued the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday, demanding that it stop Nestle from pumping water from San Bernardino National Forest in drought-stricken Southern California.
Nestle’s special-use permit expired in 1988, the groups say, but Nestle – which reported $92 billion in revenue last year – is still diverting water from the west fork of Strawberry Creek in the national forest, and bottling and selling it under its Arrowhead Springs label.
Related Article: California Is Literally Sinking as Its Water Goes and Agriculture Industry Takes Hit
Nestle is not a party to the lawsuit.
The company sent 25 million gallons of public water through its Strawberry Creek pipeline last year – about 66,000 gallons a day, according to The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs. That comes to 73 acre-feet a year: enough water to supply the annual needs of 73 average homes.
Nestle paid $524 for the water – the annual fee the Forest Service charged it, in lieu of a permit, the environmentalists say. The Forest Service told the plaintiffs that the expired permit will remain in force until it renders a decision on renewal.
Arrowhead Springs water was selling online for $3.74 for a 6-gallon case Thursday morning. Without deducting the cost of production, that would bring Nestle $41,140 a day – more than $15 million a year.
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The Forest Service issued a special-use permit in 1976 and amended it in 1978 and 1981, allowing Nestle to take water from Strawberry Creek, but it expired on Aug. 2, 1988 “and no new special use permit has ever been issued,” according to the lawsuit.
Nestle applied to renew the permit, but the government never acted, the environmentalists say, which makes the water diversion illegal.
“Right now, it really feels like the primary emphasis is letting Nestle take water,” attorney Rachel Doughty told The Desert Sun. “They’ve delayed the permit review for years and years and years, and let them continue to operate.”
This is only common sense! But, I guess that’s a lot less common than making money or doing the right thing!
Why is the Governor allowing this is to happen ,what the heck is wrong with him!!!selling us down the dry river?
Free land, expensive water = USA.
this is absolutely disgraceful
basically ,…NO, NO ,NO ,NO, NO,….!!!!!!!!!
TPP allowed this to happen, thanks to the President. Water will no longer will a right, but a commodity. Nestle in fact will be allowed to sue the state of CA
Vicki this is not the president. .this is multi billion dollar corps. That havecenormous clout. And this money driven destruction of everyones world has been going on for over sixty years..he wasnt even born yet. how often do you leave your tap running? Same thing smaller scale.
Kate You are right it has been going on over sixty years. No, I do not leave my tap running. I have well water. It does not change the fact that water will become a commodity when TPP is fully passed. The bottom line is WE took too long to fight this.
Nestlé believes all The water in The world should be privatized. They want to own life itself.
Typical multimillion dollar companies looking at quick solutions with maximum potential for harm…and govts get paid for it .. why dont nestle purify salt from the ocean…they have the money..leave the future sources alone. God governments are thick. All about the dollar. Anyone ever see mad max…in the end it was water that was controlled by the horrible mob. Just around the corner..
Documentary: Flow
Nestlé is an evil bitch:-(
Cut off those c***s***ers at the knees right away. Expired permint and they are still drawing water? I don’t f*cking think so, ESPECIALLY with the arrogance of their CEO that f***er. Someone should do the rest of the world a favour and shoot that prick.
Way to go folks..go after the greedy s.o.b.’s
Corporations run the country and are suckling us all dry.
Literally in this case
We could all stop buying their products…world wide…petition it and boycott .
Yes I agree with you I live in Ireland and refuse to buy any nestle products
Stop buying Nestle products.Big business doesn’t give a shit about people or the environment. They will bleed both dry to keep the sacred shareholders happy.That’s all they care about.Future profits.Time for people to wake up to the practices of these everyday companies.They are killing us and the planet and they sit back in their boardrooms behind closed doors and come up with new ways to rape the planet and us.Fuck them@#$&%
Yes boycott all Nestle products Monsanto shares down 26% because of awareness spread on social media we can all do the same with nestle
Sounds good to me.Then we can start on the next company
Rene Vela Jr.
JAY MATA KI JAY///
Yes and we need to turn the tap off in Canada also!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8PboCj0QOc
I say charge them 500% the original agreed upon price, then continue to stop their illegal use!
I will not buy Nestle water ever again. How could CA. Government allow this to happen. This needs to be stopped.
All Nestle products need to be boycotted I live in Ireland and refuse to buy any nestle products
Damm right Steve Paterson!!!
I feel bad for California with all these poor decision makers probably being paid off. Water is a born right to have, not even restaurants can deny someone water.
Guy’s we can rant all we like but action is the way to go, no Nestle product, difficult because there are so many. Monsanto shares are down 26% because of awareness. Like and share all these articles boycott all products. I live in Ireland but we all need to support Americans to fight greedy corporations
We can use all the support we can get, and appreciate it! Thanks for spreading awareness!
Kill the illuminati
WHY WOULD YOU DO IT?? WHY??! KNOWING THEY HAD SO LITTLE AND YET YOU STILL!!!
In case anyone didn’t know America is run by corporations… so this will be the norm until that is not the case.
We the People will never be delivered, god bless America . . .
Why don’t you just follow the money and stop yapping. You probably voted for the guy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_water
vvv we have recognized the human right to water for a LONG LONG TIME…why is the Government allowing this? ummm Because we’ve been sold out to corporations..that’s why…
one more ‘corporate person’ diagnosed a sociopath
But nobody cares about the meat and dairy subsidies.