Communities Speak Out: Nestle, Stop Stealing Our Water

Corporate Accountability International. Posted April 10, 2009.

Throughout all of these, Nestlé proposed to be a good neighbor company to our area yet it continues to pump at high rates during periods of lower precipitation and recharge.  Nestlé actively pursued and was granted tax breaks, grants and numerous favors in spite of its poor environmental record and its exportation of water from Michigan.  Nestlé is here to stay - they want us to believe.  Thank you.

Deborah Lapidus:    Thank you so much, Terry.  Debra Anderson in McCloud.

Debra Anderson:    Hi, Debra.  My name is Debra Anderson and I'm the president of the McCloud Watershed Council, an organization whose mission is to protect the Greater McCloud River watershed.  My story is somewhat similar to Arlene's and Terry's just with everything that they said, the division they caused in our town, trying to get tax breaks, just everything.  Our community was really shocked when in 2003, our local McCloud Service District, it's the governing body of McCloud, approved a 100-year contract with Nestlé for our town's spring water. 

A special town meeting had been called to discuss the Nestlé project and many people came out so that they could actually understand what the project was, voiced their concerns and their comments and get questions asked and people were just like I said shocked when at the end of that meeting, the gavel was struck and the contract was signed for 100 years.  Many felt that the public profits had been circumvented and that the deal was actually struck behind closed doors with Nestlé prior to the meeting. 

This contract was egregious for numerous reasons.  Not only did it give Nestlé the right to 1,600 acre-feet of spring water but it also gave them an unlimited amount of ground water.  It was an unheard of 100-year contract for less than a tenth of a cent a gallon.  This project would add over 600 truck trips a day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to our beautiful two-lane scenic volcanic highway.  That meant that a truck would be leaving McCloud every three minutes around the clock.  They would destroy our historical mill site by tearing down all of the remaining historical buildings and McCloud is known to being a historical mill town.  Not only would they be changing the integrity of our town but also our way of life but most of all, this contract was taking the control of our water away from the local people.  Nestlé had truly treated our community as though we were a third world country and this all came on the guise of boosting our economy by creating jobs which, in reality, were too few jobs for too little pay. 

We organized and with the help of a very strong contemptuous letter from the attorney general to our local board concerning the project, we finally after years got Nestlé to withdraw the original contract, but now, the supposed good neighbor is trying to push their way in again with a new proposal.  They just don't seem to get it.  We know that in light of Nestlé's track record in other states and all the lawsuits that they're involved with around the country that the best thing that can happen to McCloud is for Nestlé to go away.  Thank you.

Deborah Lapidus:    Thank you so much, Debra.  Finally, we'll hear from Ann Wentworth in Maine.

Ann Wentworth:    Hello.  This is Ann Winn-Wentworth and I do want you to know I am vice chair of POWWR which is Protecting Our Water and Wildlife. Our area, a small little town, would have been site number nine for Nestlé. 

In February of 2008, Nestlé began public hearings in Shapleigh to pave the way for large scale water extraction from our local aquifer which is on a 4000-acre Vernon Walker Land Preserve and it was discovered that those monitoring wells had been there for over three years and none of us were made aware of it.  This is on land that must remain in its natural state.  It was purchased with federal funds to always remain in its natural state.  Many of us care deeply for this preserve and we're [up in arms] to learn that the State of Maine who manages this land would allow a foreign corporation to go in, cut trees and install wells without any notification.  Both towns, Shapleigh and Newfield, share this preserve and we were gravely concerned. 

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