Posts tagged: nestle waters of north america

Michigan Supreme Court Protects Au Sable River From Contamination, Zings Nestle in the Process

February 1, 2011, by Tom Chandler 2 comments

The Michigan State Supreme Court narrowly protected the Au Sable River from 1.15 million gallons of mining wastewater, and while the decision to protect the river should make the collective hearts of the 600-strong Anglers of the Au Sable soar, it might also put the boots to a longtime member of the Underground’s Water Axis of Evil.

Our close, personal friends at Nestle Waters of North America.

Here’s the story (found via the Third Coast Fly blog):

By siding with the Anglers of the Au Sable in a long-running lawsuit over a state permit that threatened the celebrated trout stream, the Michigan Supreme Court has strengthened protection of all state waters in the process, according to lead attorney Jim Olson.

The dispute began in 2005, when the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) gave Houston-based Merit Energy a permit to discharge up to 1.15 million gallons of treated wastewater from a contaminated site into a creek that flows into the Au Sable River [Editor's note: the Michigan DEQ was formerly run by a real moron]. The discharge plan was part of Merit Energy’s plan to clean up a former Shell Oil production facility in the Manistee River watershed.

Anglers of the Au Sableâ€”a 600-member environmental conservation groupâ€”mounted a legal campaign to block the move, arguing that it threatened the river’s health and amounted to a massive diversion of water from one watershed to another.

While early court rulings favored the Anglers, a state appeals court ruling dismissed the DEQ (now the Department of Natural Resources and Environment) from the suit.

But on December 29, a narrow 4-3 majority of the court rendered its verdict, ruling that Merit Energy’s discharge plan was â€œmanifestly unreasonableâ€ and that the DEQ should be held accountable for violating the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.

The name of the lawyer caught my eye; Jim Olson was the attorney who once put the boots to Hated Water Sleaze Corporation Nestle Waters of North America, and not only had he come through for the Au Sable, but the decision by the Michigan State Supreme Court means he likely he gets to stick a cattle prod in Nestle yet again.

The court decision also set a precedent that state waters should be protected as a public trust, rather than the less rigorous concept of a â€œreasonable use balancing test,â€ which had been used in a previous lawsuit, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v. NestlÃ© Waters North America. In that 2007 case, the court ruled with the bottled water giant, which planned to pump millions of gallons annually from a Mecosta County aquifer.

Olson thinks the decision in the Au Sable case will help overturn the precedent set in the NestlÃ© Waters case, less than three years earlier.

That means it’s not just a good day for fishermen, but a great day for everyone everywhere (unless you happen to be a Nestle Exec).

See you in court, Tom Chandler.

NestlÃ© Waters Ends Pursuit of McCloud Water

September 10, 2009, by Tom Chandler 14 comments

I’m working on something much bigger, so this will be short and sweet:

NestlÃ© Waters North America has decided to withdraw its proposal to build a bottling facility in McCloud.

via NestlÃ© Waters ends pursuit of McCloud facility – Mount Shasta, CA – Mount Shasta Herald.

Bye, Nestle.

One down, two more to go (Klamath dams & Westlands).

UPDATE: I’ll certainly write more about this development next week; it’s the culmination of a lot of work on the part of a lot of people, and it deserves a few more nouns, verbs and adjectives. Also, Nestle still owns the old mill site in the middle of McCloud – anyone want to buy, protect, or use for sustainable development a 240 acre chunk in the middle of trout heaven?

Is Nestle Pulling Out of McCloud – And Leaving Our Trout Water Behind? Maybe…

July 30, 2009, by Tom Chandler 5 comments

Longtime readers know of my deep and abiding dislike of Nestle Waters of North America – a small division of one of the world’s most (deservedly) boycotted corporation.

They’re like the Enron of the bottled water world, only better run – and perhaps even less ethical (this is the same multinational that knowingly tricked third-world moms into a dependence on their baby formula in the 70s and 80s – a practice they haven’t quite stopped today).

I got tired of their divisive, behind-the-scenes antics in the nearby town of McCloud, and after a little research revealed the depths they seemed happy to sink to in other small towns (they sued the tiny town of Fryeburg, Maine five times [losing the first four] before they found the legal loophole they needed to force the town to permit a 24/7 truck loading station in a residential area).

They even inspired one of the Trout Underground’s better April 1 posts.

Now it looks like they might finally be getting the hell out of McCloud. (They just recently had their asses handed to them in Mecosta County, MI.)

Either way, I like the sound of this (from my StopNestleWaters.org site):

We knew that Nestle Waters of North America’s just-announced water bottling plant in Sacramento, CA, might have an impact on their long-delayed McCloud bottling plant.

From the Mount Shasta Herald:

â€œIn four to six weeks, we will let McCloud know if we will continue with our McCloud plans,â€ company representative Dave Palais said Monday night, noting that a recent article incorrectly stated that the company would be dropping its McCloud proposal.

Woot!

Well, maybe.

This is also reeks of a seen-plenty-of-times-before negotiating tactic used by Nestle in McCloud and other towns, whereby they hope to stampede yokels into accepting Nestle’s typically rapacious deals.

I’d like to point out that Nestle – and the bottled water industry at large – are suffering the effects of a sizable downturn in the bottled water market, which used to grow at double-digit rates.

They blame the economy, but public backlash against bottled water continues to grow, and with the US bottled water market shrinking 3% in just the first quarter, it’s pretty clear that Nestle’s promises of jobs to McCloud could be turning to vapor as we speak.

See you on the Nestle-free McCloud river, Tom Chandler

The Best eMail to the Underground Ever (So Far This Week)

February 17, 2009, by Tom Chandler 20 comments

I’m aware of the fact that not every fly fishermen is fully invested in the Underground’s take on the environment, but my appearance on Trout Unlimited’s On The Rise Broadcast has generated probably the Best Email To The Underground Ever:

I think if you are going to show fishing,you should leave you’re environmental crap to yourself. I have young children that don’t need to be raised on your paranoid beliefs.Stay in California and quit spreading your brainwashing. I’m sorry that you can’t see that you have been raised in a confusing culture that wants to blame the people instead of the governmental and world wide destroyers. Get you’re crap together. Wake up and stop selling what you think THEY want to hear.

Speaking for paranoid, confused, brainwashed types worldwide, I’d like to say “thanks” for waking me up to what I so clearly missed – the work of that insidious band of “governmental and world wide destroyers” (Wait a minute – isn’t that Nestle? Err, well, uhhh… Has the new administration appointed a “World Wide Destroyer” Czar? I think he has.)

Besides making me want to invest heavily in aluminum foil-lined hat futures (and perhaps a bodyguard), the Underground is happy to recognize anyone capable of providing this level of comic relief. We salute you.

And Now, a Little Fly Fishing. Well, Not Really.

I look out the window at my just barely passable driveway and reflect on the concept that over the last week, better than four feet of snow fell on it – and that I invested the equivalent of four afternoon fishing trips keeping it barely passable.

It’s not the kind of thinking that generates a warm fuzzy feeling (in fact, it causes me to question my personal values surrounding snow removal, as confused and brainwashed as they clearly are), and because the weather’s warming and you can see the snow softening, you know that river flows are probably heading up the next two days – about the time you’ll actually be clear of deadlines and able to fly fish.

Still, right now the Upper Sac seems to be bouncing around 1100/1200 cfs, which is plenty fishable – especially at the higher reaches of the river (remember, the gauging station is just above Shasta Lake). Of course, the best BWO hatches are typically found in middle sections of the river, creating something of a connundrum for greedy fly fishermen (aren’t we all).

The Hostile, Confused, Brainwashed Underground

Taken as a whole, all of the above means one thing: I’m in what you might deem a pretty hostile mood (just try me Barton, try me).

Naturally enough, this makes me want to stick another pin in Nestle Waters of North America (perhaps I’m just hoping to attract another entertaining email), so I’m posting a YouTube trailer for an upcoming documentary called “Tapped.” It’s 341 seconds the water bottling arm of Underground Axis of Evil Member Nestle would rather you didn’t see, but even those not connected to the Nestle issue will find the trailer soundtrack worth their time.