Green Groups Blast Feds On Nestlé Water Oversight

Environmental groups are taking the federal government to court for allegedly mishandling its approach to the controversy around Nestlé, which has faced criticism for bottling and selling western groundwater amid the region’s historic drought.

Activist groups including the Courage Campaign Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit this month against the U.S. Forest Service because it did not halt Nestlé’s bottled water business despite what they groups claim are permitting problems.

According to court documents filed with the Eastern District Court of California, the lawsuit focuses on Nestlé’s four-mile pipeline from San Bernardino National Forest’s Strawberry Creek to bottling operations in Ontario, Calif. “The groups asked the court to immediately shut down the pipeline and order the Forest Service to conduct a full permitting process that includes environmental reviews,” The Hill reported.

The groups argue that permitting oversight has been inadequate. They said in a statement: “In 2014 alone an estimated 28 million gallons were piped away from the forest to be bottled and sold under Nestlé’s Arrowhead brand of bottled water. The permit expired in 1988, but the piping system remains in active use, siphoning about 68,000 gallons of water a day out of the forest last year.”

Nestlé responded to the lawsuit by arguing that it is operating within the rules. “Our permit, as told to us by the forest service, remains valid and in effect,” Nestlé Waters North America Spokeswoman Jane Lazgin told The Hill. “And we continue to pay the required fee for the pipeline use and transportation of water at that site.”

“We are and have been really strengthening our efforts to conserve water in California, recognizing the severity of the drought there,” she said. “And we are doing our part by re-using water in our factories for cleaning and for cooling our equipment.”

Nestlé emphasizes the importance of water resources, in general, when defending its bottled water business. "Water is essential and if people weren't drinking our bottled water, they'd be drinking tap water or soda or beer," Lazgin has previously said, per CNBC.

To keep up with the ongoing Nestlé bottled water saga, visit Water Online’s Water & Wastewater Treatment For The Food & Beverage Industry Solutions Center.