Nestle Tries Another Foot in McCloud's Watershed Door

(by McCloud Watershed Council  Thursday Feb 26th, 2009 10:40 AM)       After promising to scale down their water bottling facility, Nestle representatives try another approach into McCloud's Mt. Shasta aquifer, a slightly scaled down version of the same bottling plant. During times of drought and increasing demands on the Sacramento River's water, can CA afford to sell of the source of the North state's main water supply?
Just when you thought it was safe to stop watching the McCloud water heist, Nestle returns to the town on the southern flank of Mt. Shasta with a "new and improved" plan for their bottling facility..
Here's an article about the latest public meeting with Nestle;
"Nestlé solicits more feedback from McCloud"
Siskiyou Daily News, February 20, 2009
By David Smith
McCloud, Calif. -
"The citizens of McCloud, concerned groups and representatives from Nestlé Waters gathered for a community forum to gain ideas and perspective on where the future will take the town and the corporation.
Curtis Knight, of California Trout, said that the meeting “was a good exchange of information,” noting that although the issue has been emotional and divisive in the past, those attending maintained a civil attitude.
The meeting, which stretched well into three hours, featured a presentation of the scaled-back plans being developed by Nestlé.
Knight said that the proposal, which was first revealed in early 2008, capped water intake at 600 acre-feet and reduced the proposed facility size from 1 million square feet to 350,000.
Dave Palais, Nestle Waters North America’s Natural Resources Manager for Northern California, said that the meeting went very well and he felt there was plenty of good feedback from everyone who spoke.
“We are looking forward to similar meetings in the future,” Palais said.
According to Palais, the company will move forward using the comments and concerns from the audience, and a future meeting is slated for the latter part of May, possibly focusing more on the studies being conducted in the Squaw Valley Creek watershed.
Knight said that California Trout’s main focus is on protecting McCloud’s watersheds-and the organization has spent much time working with Nestle and researchers from UC Davis developing a baseline study to determine how much, if any, water should be allowed to be taken from the Squaw Valley watershed.While he felt that the meeting went well, Knight said that there remains some caution on the part of California Trout and others in the McCloud area.
“I think a lot of this is premature,” Knight said, explaining that some feel that Nestlé should allow time for the studies to be completed and let the McCloud Community Services District exercise their due diligence– essentially he would like Nestlé to “let the town take a breath.”
Ultimately, Knight said that that doesn’t mean he feels Nestlé can’t be a part of McCloud’s future, but that there are other options to be explored before a commitment is made.
The specific date for the next meeting will be determined and posted in the future."
Above article found @;
http://www.mccloudwatershedcouncil.org/index.html
Even with a scaled back facility, Nestle will still take more water from the aquifer than would be desireable for the greater region's ecosystem. Remember, Coca-cola's water bottling plant already has their giant suction straw on the other side of Mt. Shasta's aquifer in the town of the same name. Both these aquifers form the headwaters of the Sacramento River and the McCloud River, a major tributary of the Sacramento River..
With all the debates over the Sacramento delta smelt, salmon population declines, urban growth and agribusiness demanding more than their fair share of the region's water, the effects of another water bottling plant in the headwaters of this riparian system wouldn't help any of the downstream users, from fish to farmers to urban residents who all depend on regular flows of this river for their water..
Bottled water corporations like Nestle depend upon myths that tap water is less safe than their product, when in reality the opposite is true. Tap water is more regulated and monitotred for pollution than is bottled water, and is much better for the environment..
Following release of the movie "FLOW", Nestle has been put on the defensive to justify their wasteful extraction and profiting off of the public commons, our aquifer systems. Here's another rebuttal to Nestle from food and Water Watch;
"Fact: Bottled water is different than tap water.
Nestlé is correct in saying that the water from U.S. public water systems is clean and safe to drink. While public water systems can have spikes in pathogens such as cryptosporidium and pharmaceuticals, so can bottled water. Nestlé speaks of the purity of bottled water, but fails to mention that the Environmental Protection Agency standards for tap water are much more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of bottled water.
And even if FDA wanted to regulate bottled water more stringently, its hands are tied. The agency oversees only interstate sales of bottled water, which are less than half – 30 percent to 40 percent – of all bottled water produced in the United States.
Tap water is more strictly regulated than bottled water. EPA requires it to be tested hundreds of times a month. And, municipal water systems are required by law to make their testing results available to the public. EPA also mandates that surface sources of tap water be tested for cryptosporidium and, if found, be disinfected. More than 90 percent of communities met EPA standards this year. For citizens in communities that don’t meet standards, installing a filter at home is the best option.
On the other hand, FDA has less than one full-time staff person overseeing the industry. The agency requires four empty bottles to be tested for bacteria once every three months and a sample of water to be tested after filtration and before bottling once a week. Bottled water is never tested after bottling and storage, and it is never tested for the chemicals that can leech from the plastic bottle into the water."
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/.../rebuttal-to-nestle-waters-north-america-statement-on-201cflow-for-the-love-of-water201d
The value of McCloud's aquifer is best left underneath the Earth, allowing the water to flow out naturally into the greater Sacramento River ecosystem, not ending up in toxic petrochemically derived plastic bottles sold at 400 times their value to unsuspecting consumers..
Othen than the usual promises of "more jobs", there is nothing positive about allowing Nestle corporation to take even one drop of aquifer water from the McCloud River watershed. As a state, CA is already strapped for every drop of precious water, and we cannot allow a profit seeking corporation to drain our watershed even one bit..
Review of Flow;
"Irena Salina’s “FLOW” documentary (For Love of Water) has been widely hailed as an industry-moving documentary - so much so, that Nestle Waters of North America cobbled together a highly misleading video response.
Today (12/9), FLOW is coming to a DVD near you, so presumably you’ll find a copy at your video rental store, Netflix, etc:
Dubbed “the scariest movie at the (2008) Sundance Film Festival” by Wired Magazine, Irena Salina’s award-winning and controversial film is a fearless, yet stirring investigation into the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply. Director Salina cogently illustrates how companies such as Nestle, Rivendi-Universal, Suez, and Coca-Cola are tapping fresh water supplies and taking advantage of this “blue gold” much to the detriment of human society and the planet.
It’s a powerful movie that’s receiving raves and altering perceptions of water use. Don’t miss it (better yet, buy a copy and hand it around to your friends)."
more info @;
http://stopnestlewaters.org/2008/12/09/flow-water-documentary-released-on-dvd-december-9/372