A project of the Alliance for Democracy
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Wanglong Group, June 22, 2009
Hong Kong’s Consumer Council has conducted a test on 40 samples of bottled water and found that Perrier, a water product of Nestle which is used as a complimentary drink by some star-rated hotels to their clients, contains a high level of nitrite.
By Marci Singer, Petoskey News-Review, Monday, June 22, 2009
“Congressman Stupak’s resolution clearly states that water cannot be treated as a product and cannot be sold as such for commercial profit. The resolution’s statement that water is a public trust, not a private commodity, would prevent all exporting of water.”
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under California, Maine, Other US, Washington.
By Steve Bodnar, Seacoast Online, June 25, 2009
WELLS – Assurance that residents would have protection in case of large-scale water extraction was a major discussion point during a June 24 Ordinance Review Committee meeting.
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Community Rights, Kennebunk (KKW District).
By Jenny Tomkins, In These Times, June 26, 2009
When Nestlé Waters North America, the world’s largest bottler of water, comes a-courting, promising jobs and increased tax revenues in exchange for local water rights, many small, rural towns get nervous.
Deborah Lapidus, an organizer with the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, says this skepticism stems from Henderson, Texas, which in the ’90s saw Nestlé suck one of its wells dry.
“The company prioritizes its own use over the environment and other uses,” says Lapidus.
As well as draining water, Nestlé also attempts to deplete these communities’ finances, Lapidus says. Towns trying to defend their reservoirs have found themselves in costly legal battles. Fryeburg, Maine, for example, has been sued five times by Nestlé for “interfering with the right to grow their market share.”
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under California, Community Rights, Kennebunk (KKW District), Other US.
To the Editor, Seacoast Online:
I was surprised to see a letter from Walter Anderson (from Yarmouth), former state geologist and Maine geologic survey director — a bona fide expert — in June 10th York County Coast Star.
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Kennebunk (KKW District), Nestlé.
By Lisa Boscov-Ellen, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, June 19, 2009
“What is called for is an international code for the public’s access to a guaranteed supply of water as a basic human right.”
The Corporate Crusade to Commodify Water
Water has been characterized as the oil of the 21st century. Blue gold. It is essential to life, and yet humanity faces a growing water crisis as a result of severe mismanagement in water and sanitation, which will be exponentially exacerbated in the coming decades by population growth combined with declining resources. Latin America has the greatest income disparity in the world and the population’s access to water reflects this inequality. Over 130 million people living in the region do not have access to potable water in their homes, and sanitation is in even poorer condition, as it is estimated that only one in six persons has adequate sanitation services.1
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Community Rights, World.
By Martin E. Comas, Orlando Sentinel, June 21, 2009
On any given day, more than 3.6 million gallons of water — more than enough to fill five Olympic-size swimming pools — is sucked up from the ground in Florida, put into bottles and sold.
All that water helps fuel a billion-dollar bottled-water industry in the United States that has seen sales top 8.6 billion gallons last year, springing more than 83 percent since 2000, according to the New York-based Beverage Marketing Corp.
Critics say tapping the aquifer for a profit — while residents face strict lawn-watering restrictions and local governments are making plans to tap alternative water sources — is tough to swallow.
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Other US.
By Mary Wentworth, Cape Cod Today, June 26, 2009
“Evian” is “naive” spelled backwards for good reason.
Do You Buy Bottled Water? If you do, think about the following:
It’s a rip-off — big time. Coca-Cola was forced to admit in 2004 that Dasani is just tap water. Nestle’s has had to add “Public Water Source” to the label of their Pure Life brand. The upshot is that you pay multiple times more for a product that is available to you at minimal cost from the faucet in your kitchen.
Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Other US.
To the Editor, Seacoast Online:
“I’m not listening … no out-of-towner is going to tell us what to do” type of responses at the June 2 Wells selectmen meeting “discussion” reared its head again when two Kennebunk women tried to speak. The same attitude as was apparent at the Town Meeting regarding the water extraction rights sought after by Nestlé/Poland Spring.
Posted: June 24th, 2009 under Kennebunk (KKW District), Nestlé, World.
By Jon Hurdle, Reuters
TAYLORSTOWN, Pennsylvania - A small Pennsylvania town is trying to ban coal mining in a battle being played out across the state as rural communities try to assert control over mining, gas drilling and other businesses.
Posted: June 15th, 2009 under Community Rights, Other US.
[Note: When the Montpelier Spring Water Co. wanted to start a spring water bottling operation in East Montpelier VT, local residents mobilized and passed a 3-year moratorium on any large scale withdrawals. "The idea of leaving this issue exclusively in the hands of the state to be dealt with legally did not seem like the best of ideas, considering how much influence corporate lobbyists have over politicians." This article places their action in a global perspective.]
By Frank Joseph Smecker, Toward Freedom, June 11, 2009
[NOTE: Number 7 home and office delivery plastic water containers contain bisphenol A.]
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY (June 10, 2009)
Hormone-like chemicals in plastics, pesticides and other products pose “significant concern for public health,” possibly causing infertility, cancer and malformations, a medical society announced Wednesday.
Posted: June 12th, 2009 under Health.
To the Editor (Seacoast Online, published June 11, 2009)
“Last time I checked Nestlé is in fact an outside group with an agenda, so why then are they writing the rules for our town. Are we to regulate them, or are they regulating us?”
Posted: June 12th, 2009 under Kennebunk (KKW District), Nestlé.
UPDATE June 17, 2009 Epoch Times:
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is calling for an investigation into the cost of water bottling to American cities. An estimated 40 percent of bottled water is derived from municipal sources and water bottling companies, which often buy in bulk, are often given discounts even in times of drought. These companies also create unknown costs to taxpayers, including the costs of disposing and recycling plastic bottles, and infrastructure for the upkeep of equipment.
This initiative follows the passing of a resolution designed to ensure equitable use of municipal water.
Posted: June 12th, 2009 under Other US.
To the Editor (Seacoast Online, published June 11, 2009)
Selectmen stifle woman’s right to speak
Last evening, June 3, at a Wells Board of Selectmen meeting, many citizens gathered to express their concerns on water extraction from Wells. Concerns varied, but the tone of concern seemed to indicate that many citizens of Wells would prefer to prohibit, not just regulate, large-scale water extraction.
Posted: June 12th, 2009 under Kennebunk (KKW District).
Mark Holden, Portland Press Herald, June 10, 2009
“DEP has found that of the 29,000 acres of high-yield sand and gravel aquifers in Maine, only about 1,200 acres are not at risk.”
Posted: June 10th, 2009 under Maine.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I’m a fan of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system. If you’re new, then trust me, I love LEED. I’ve been sitting on a press release about a newly certified LEED building for a few days trying to figure out how I wanted to approach the topic.
The building, which received LEED Gold certification, is the first LEED Gold certified food-manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania. This sounds like great news, right? Well, the facility manufactures bottled water – plastic bottled water. I just can’t get over the irony of manufacturing toxin-leeching, landfill-filling plastic bottled water in a LEED certified building.
Read more »
By Elizabeth Royte, author of Bottlemania
Last March, Dasani announced it would sponsor Alexandra Cousteau’s round-the-world Expedition: Blue Planet, intended to bring attention to water issues. The granddaughter of famed marine explorer Jacques-Yves, Cousteau recently fetched up in New Orleans (you can read about it here), where she toured hurricane ravaged neighborhoods and spoke with shrimpers and fishermen about the Gulf’s Dead Zone, which now covers more than 8,000 square miles.
Why would Dasani, one of the nation’s top-selling bottled water brands, sponsor such a trip? Because its parent company, Coca Cola, is a vast consumer of fresh water, and it’s in a p.r. hole, water wise. (You can read about the company’s abuse of groundwater and local communities that depend on that water here.) Last year Coca Cola partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to improve its water efficiency and, not incidentally, clean up its image.
Posted: June 9th, 2009 under Other US.
Letter to the Editor About Water Extraction in Wells | Seacoast Online
I write to express my concerns over legislation to allow large-scale water extraction from the Town of Wells. I and those in my neighborhood rely on our private wells for water. In the past two years I have witnessed three wells within shouting distance of my home fail, requiring well replacement, no doubt at considerable cost to the property owners.
In addition, I have learned that in the not-to-distant past, the town had requested citizens to refrain from sprinkler use due to water shortage in a dry spell. Does this sound as if we of Wells should be willing to sell our water? I think not.
Posted: June 9th, 2009 under Kennebunk (KKW District), Nestlé.
“We meter water and sewer use in our cities — rightly so, since city systems are heavily capitalized. But everywhere else, we act as if water is free and in endless supply. Thus, the dilemma: We are blessed with a valuable resource that we do not value highly.”
Besides healthy soil, water is probably the most important ingredient in growing healthy food. And we use a lot of water at Long Meadow Farm.