Do you remember this guy, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Nestlé’s 70-year-old former CEO and current Chairman, who was made infamous for saying that all water should be privatized and it is not a human right?
Well, now it looks like this Nestle company‘s sickening greed knows no bounds, and not only do they want to take all your water so they can sell it back to you, now they are accused of stealing millions and possibly billions of gallons of water from a creek in drought stricken California.
Environmental groups sued the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday, alleging that the agency has allowed Nestle Waters to draw water from a creek in the San Bernardino Mountains under a permit that expired more than 25 years ago.
The company, owner of the Arrowhead bottled water brand, has drawn millions of gallons from the west fork of Strawberry Creek under a permit it apparently acquired in 2002.
At a time when residents have been asked to cut back water use during the record-setting drought, the diversion for commercial bottling to consumers once again has put Nestle in the cross hairs of the state’s water squabbles. The company faces scrutiny over its water withdrawal activities elsewhere in the state.
“We Californians have dramatically reduced our water use over the past year in the face of an historic drought, but Nestle has refused to step up and do its part,” said Michael O’Heaney, executive director of the Story of Stuff Project, a plaintiff in the suit filed in U.S. District Court. “Until the impact of Nestle’s operation is properly reviewed, the Forest Service must turn off the spigot.”
About a hundred protesters gathered outside a Nestle water-bottling plant in Los Angeles.
The Forest Service has allowed pipeline operators to continue transporting water about four miles, from a series of bore holes and tunnels to a storage tank near California 18, without more stringent review required after the original permit was issued in 1976, the suit alleges.
“Modern scrutiny would never let this kind of stuff happen,” said Eddie Kurtz, executive director of the Courage Campaign Institute, a public policy group that is co-plaintiff in the suit. “Our understanding is there are a lot of permits like these all over the country.”
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
should be privatized and it is not a human right?
