Forest Service considers Nestle mountain water withdrawals
Source: Washington Post
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The U.S. Forest Service on Friday proposed giving Nestle a five-year permit to keep siphoning millions of gallons of water from the Southern California mountains to bottle and sell.
The Forest Service said it was starting an environmental analysis of the request for a special permit to continue drawing water from the Strawberry Creek watershed in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.
Nestle Waters North America — a subsidiary of the Swiss multinational food giant and the largest bottled water company in the nation — has been drawing 25 million gallons of water a year from mountains springs under a permit that expired some three decades ago. The company pays the government about $500 a year and markets the product as Arrowhead brand spring water.
The water flows from about a dozen wells down through a 4.5-mile pipeline and is trucked to bottling plants.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/forest-service-considers-nestle-mountain-water-withdrawals/2016/03/18/9305da00-ed71-11e5-a9ce-681055c7a05f_story.html
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Lower than bargain basement rates paid for huge amounts of water, and during an historic drought.
Removing Nestle' would be great, but there are still others doing the same, e.g. Walmart.
Good thing "liberal" J. Brown is on the job.
Nestle is one of the worst corporations and the fact that they have been taking our water, just so they can re-sell it back to us is nothing short of criminal.
They need to be shut down, although I'm sure that won't happen.
and 500 bucks a year makes it unbelievably insane!! There's a fucking water rationing water crisis in California and they are selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of water for 500 bucks!!!!!
for posting this.
This is utterly infuriating. I've been trying to learn the rate that Nestle' pays in Calif., and finally, here it is. Thank you.
Not only does Calif. allow this much water to be taken during the worst drought (or, "drought"
in its history (and, actually, even longer than that), it practically GIVES IT AWAY to effing Nestle', one of the worst rogue corporations in the effing world.
Good thing we have a "climate champion" like Jerry Brown in office.
Nestle' has, OF COURSE, the same sweet deal in Canada, where it pays the province of British Columbia $2.25 (two dollars & twenty-five cents) for every million litres of water it draws from there.
In gallons, that's 264,172. $2.25.
As history proves, the cosy relationship between corporations and governments is a hallmark of fascism.
At the least, we should be re-examining the very concept of the corporation, as this arbitrary construct, fashioned out of thin air, is doing immense damage to our lives.
Nestle must be paying the campaign costs of the legislators in order to get this sort of bill removed.
I am gobsmacked.
AND pissed off.
near Shasta, I believe. 
