Media Updates, page-24

Hi Avagadro,

You are spot-on with your observations about nestle.  They have a water bottling facility just north of us here in Michigan where they are pumping fresh, clean water from Osceola County and selling it as Ice Mountain water for a tidy profit.  Last year they petitioned the local planning commission to increase the rate of flow for one of their pump heads from 250 to 400 gallons per minute.  Not an insignificant amount.  There was quite a bit of pushback, both locally and throughout the state.  In the end nestle won on appeal and added 20 jobs to their facility.  And the cost to nestle?  "The request has prompted vehement public opposition, with many particularly outraged that Nestle gets the groundwater for nothing more than a $200 per year DEQ permit." From a Detroit Free Press article:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/04/19/nestle-groundwater-michigan-great-lakes/100663218/

Here is a good summary of how nestle basically changed Michigan's Environmental Protection Act  http://justice4michigan.org/files/hfp_nestle_case.pdf

Believe me, I'm NOT a fringe environmentalist but the bottom line regarding nestle from the "nestle case" article above is this:

"Nestlé began as a case about water. It turned out to be a case about our right, as citizens, to protect our natural resources - a right that the majority of the present (Michigan) Supreme Court has effectively taken away"