Nestle Sucks. Our Aquifers. Literally.
A week ago I was in the US Federal Court in Riverside, CA to sit in on a hearing brought against the Forest Service to get Nestle to stop pumping water on an expired permit until an environmental impact study is conducted. Today, as wildfires rage around the Southland and we experience a record setting heatwave --102F in the shade in downtown LA-- I have to wonder at the fact that no law currently exists prohibiting a private company from removing undisclosed amounts of water from our land.
Nestle is paying nothing, drawing on a permit which expired in 1988. There is no oversight. The Forestry Service supervisor who oversaw the original permitting went on the work as a consultant at Nestle.
Their CEO is on record stating that water is not a human right, and should best be regulated to corporation. Uh-oh. This points to a very scary end game. We can all get along without oil. But water? Not so much, it’s pretty well game over. Aside from being thirsty, you can’t grow food without water. Or trees or bees or support any wildlife at all. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
I sat quietly outside the courtroom before we it was open, and heard the two Forestry Service employees (one of whom, Judy Noiron, the SB Forest Supervisor, was named in the suit) joking with their lawyer about the poor public turnout in support of the environmental review. They were so cynical and disgusting in their disdain, I had to say, “You know, a tree can’t go to the 7 Eleven for a bottle of water. I wonder what sort of job Nestle must have promised you to make this worthwhile?”.
Please rally for your right to access water. Demand protection from your Government, wherever you are, from this corporate greed which seeks to control water rights around the world. Educate yourself and consider the kind of world you wish to live in. Make a noise.
Oregon voters kicked them out by getting a popular initiative put on the ballot last month.
Boycott Arrowhead Water.