Regular Undergrounders know of my distaste for Nestle Waters, their predatory approach to small towns, and their apparent lack of concern for the McCloud River.

And yes, it’s clear to me the McCloud River is a favorite among my readers (soneone said if the McCloud’s not a favorite, it’s because you haven’t fished it yet).

Curtis Knight of CalTrout filled the early part of the show deftly outlining the threats to the river, and yes, I made an appearance in the last segment, where I successfully didn’t soil myself.

In fact viewers were treated to an inside view of the the Underground’s Brown Trout Mobile (the slowly deteriorating brown Bronco), and you probably also got a good glimpse of the river, which – as host (and new daddy) Frank Smethurst put it – was still somewhat TU (totally unfishable).

Thoughts

The show did an excellent job covering the threat to the river, and maybe now you know why CalTrout’s Curtis Knight is an Underground favorite.

The show would be a ton more fun if they’d broadcast some of the interaction between the crew and Smethhurst. It’s pure guys-on-a-fishing-trip entertainment, even if it doesn’t fit into the show’s format.

From a purely personal perspective, it’s a glimpse back into time – a look at a couple months and a couple pounds ago, on a river that you can’t legally fish right now.

I hope this places a little more pressure on Nestle to start playing fair with rural towns, and while it’s a small victory, it’s a shame that every town facing Nestle can’t get its own TV show (interesting fun fact: Nestle is the most-boycotted corporation in the world).

Now that my brief broadcast career is over, see you back on the river, Tom Chandler.

In a brazen attempt to help Nestle Waters understand the error of their ways, I launched something that will no doubt brighten the mood around their corporate offices: StopNestleWaters.org

Go ahead and click through. We don’t bite – not you anyway.

Despite the fact Nestle’s recently taken a beating, they’re still up to their old tricks: suing tiny towns for their water, negotiating secret deals out of site of the public, and just generally being a massive corporate pain in the ass.

Undeniably, they’ve provided many hours of mirth and lazy target practice for the Undergrounders, and that hasn’t wholly ended.

It was just time to ramp things up a bit.

Bad Multinational: Put That Rural Town Down

You see, Nestle’s doing less-than-pleasant things in small communities around the country, and while citizens groups form to fight the Chocolate-Covered Swiss Menace (which sounds better than it is), they tend to remain local in their focus.

In other words, there are a lot of people fighting the same fight – but in different places.

Why not a site that brings them together?

Viola! (or) Voila!

A couple weeks of sleepless nights, and StopNestleWaters.org was born.

As much as anything, it’s an exploration of the idea that the Internet can level the playing field between a handful of locals and the world’s largest food and beverage company – complete with multi-bazillion dollar PR budgets and people in suits dedicated to turning the world’s freshwater supply into one big Nestle bottling plant.

Today is the site’s soft launch; I’m slowly letting the online world in on the joke gig.

Why am I telling you? Because some of the Undergrounders may simply want Nestle to keep their filthy paws off the McCloud River’s water.

Others may want to check in from time to time, or register for the site’s RSS or email feeds.

Maybe you’ll even want to participate in the discussion, which – given Nestle’s prediliction for shooting itself in the foot – promises to be amusing. In the meantime, expect regular service on the Underground (if such a thing exists) to resume.

So please place your tray and seat in the upright and locked position: We’re ready for takeoff.

See you on StopNestleWaters.org, Tom Chandler.

The California Attorney General’s office has weighed in on Nestle’s proposed McCloud bottling plant (.pdf document alert), and like seemingly everyone else on the planet, they don’t much like what they see (excerpted from scan of letter):

These days, bad PR is falling on Nestle like rain in a Midwest thunderstorm. Their Web site says “Good Food. Good Life.”

Judging by the sheer volume of anti-Nestle rhetoric flying in the mass media and on the Internet, it might be time they started looking for a new tagline.

This is cautionary tale for any company. Time was when multinationals could arrive in economically depressed communities and pretty much have their way. But in the age of hyper connectedness, residents in McCloud were able to turn their issue into an international sensation.

Now Nestle has capitulated. The management lesson: no company can afford to go forward with projects like these without engaging ALL stakeholders, not just supporters. Yes, this is still David versus Goliath. But David has a megaphone.

They got the last bit wrong. It’s not David vs Goliath. It’s a whole bunch of Davids vs Goliath (including the Undergrounders).

Here’s hoping for a renegotiation of the Nestle contract resulting in a worthwhile project for the town of McCloud — and a little instant karmic payback for Nestle’s legal intimidation, copious lies, and for consciously splitting the town of McCloud in two.

In addition, they’ve agreed to reduce the amount of water taken by more than half — pumping 200 million gallons per year instead of the originally planned 521 million acres.

This, Undergrounders, mean’s we’re halfway there.

Renegotiate!

What remains is the renegotiation of multinational predator Nestle’s rapacious contract with the McCloud Services District — the five-member elected board who negotiated the existing contract in secret and approved it after a single public meeting.

While little is official at this point, the new project looks like this:

• 350,000 sq. ft. plant (instead of a million sq. ft. monster)
• 200,000,000 gallons of water annually (521,000,000 gallons)
• Agreement to monitor flows in Squaw Creek for two years prior to building the plant

Presumably, the number of truck trips will be reduced from the mind-boggling, road-grinding 600 trips per day.

The Mount Shasta Herald suggested that changes to the specifications of the contract could mean renegotiation of all the terms of the contract, so it’s possible McCloud will be able to do away with the “negotiated-by-monkeys” contract that pays 1/100th the value of the water, and offers no increase in rates for 100 years.

This is good news, Undergrounders. And while Nestle says rising fuel costs and the construction of a Denver plant drove this decision <coughbullshitcough>, a careful look at last year’s financials suggests their water market is no long growing, and that public backlash is badly damaging correctly identifying the company’s image.

UPDATE: The Protect Our Waters Coalition (CalTrout, McCloud Watershed Council and Trout Unlimited) have weighed in:

“While it certainly is a smaller plant than it would have been, it nonetheless uses a large amount of water. It’s still a major operation,” said Severn Williams, a spokesman for the Protect Our Waters Coalition.

It plans to lobby for a higher price for the water and a clause that limits Nestle to pumping only water from the springs around McCloud while prohibiting the company from touching the aquifer.

Williams also said the coalition wants a contract with a shorter timeframe than McCloud’s current 100-year commitment to sell its water exclusively

More water news as it happens, Undergrounders. It’s not a bad way to come back home.

Technorati Tags: nestle,nestle waters,bottled water,mccloud,mcloud river,squaw creek,bottled water backlash,multinational predators

Apparently, that’s easier than fixing the problems that got them in hot water to begin with, but if you want to read an intelligent writer’s take on Nestle’s problems with the town of Fryeburg, Maine, then consider Elizabeth Royte’s soon-to-be-available book: Bottlemania

You can read an excerpt here. Frankly, it looks like fascinating stuff, and Royte is heavy hitter, with credits from Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and OnEarth.

See you in Maine, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: bottlemania,elizabeth royte,nestle waters,bottled water,fryeburg,multinational predator

That’s why it’s heartening to hear the Protect Our Waters Coalition (CalTrout, Trout Unlimited, and the McCloud Watershed Council) have hired a few legal gunslingers of their own:

The McCloud Watershed Council and California Trout, who, along with Trout Unlimited, comprise the Protect Our Waters Coalition, announced today that they have engaged the national law and consulting firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. The firm will represent the Coalition in their fight to safeguard the rights and quality of life for residents of McCloud, California and beyond who would be affected by operation of a planned Nestle Waters North America water bottling plant in the Mt. Shasta area. Progress on the proposed plant, which would be the nation’s largest, is mired in unanswered questions and conflicting economic and environmental assessments.

Are they any good? Hell if I know, but at least the good guys aren’t walking into this one unarmed.

I do know lawyers (in addition to making good bait) are expensive, so it’s probably a good time to join CalTrout (if you haven’t already).

See you in the conference room, Tom Chandler.