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 Sable—a 600-member environmental conservation group—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 “manifestly unreasonable” 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 “reasonable use balancing test,” which had been used in a previous lawsuit, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v. Nestlé 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 Nestlé 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.

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

via Nestl̩ Waters ends pursuit of McCloud facility РMount Shasta, CA РMount 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?

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:

“In four to six weeks, we will let McCloud know if we will continue with our McCloud plans,” 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

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.

To get that footage, you might find yourself climbing up on a rock in the middle of a flood-stage river, casting into a tiny gap in the trees, then throwing a weighted streamer back over your shoulder.

At least, you would if you’re uber-fly fisherbum Frank Smethurst:

Crazy Uber-fly fisherbum Frank Smethurst doing what it takes on the McCloud (kids, don’t try this at home)

At times I’m reminded why I’m much happier writing about fly fishing than shooting video of it. Writing leaves you in complete control of the story (history, after all, is defined by those who write it), and writers are famously good at forgetting the embarrassing details.

Video leaves you at the mercy of the universe, your own shortcomings, and makes little allowance for conditions bent on handing your own ass to you on a platter.

Welcome to the Flood. Now Here’s Your Ass.

I invested last Saturday getting pounded by the McCloud’s record-high flows with Frank Smethurst and a Barrett Productions video crew, shooting an episode of Trout Unlimited’s “On The Rise” TV show.

How’d you like one of these looking over your shoulder? Smethurst did, but I didn’t…

Nobody with a firm grip on reality would hammer out a quality fly fishing show on a river running high enough to flood the footpaths running alongside, but Smethurst and the video crew were on a mission.

TU’s On The Rise is unique in that it prizes fly fishing footage, but also highlights hot-button conservation issues.

Smethurst travels the country in a trout-painted Airstream trailer (which they left at home, damnit), and this time, he was looking into the threats to the McCloud River (perhaps the best-loved river of the assembled Undergrounders – and one of the prettiest).

These threats, of course, include the Underground’s close, personal friends at Swiss Multinational Predator Nestle Waters of North America (how do I love thee Nestle? Let me count the ways).

That’s why the effette, low-modulus, dry-fly fishing me found myself standing on the banks of the fast-moving, Nature Conservancy section of the McCloud (running at historic highs due to a broken PG&E powerhouse), 9′ 6wt Orvis Zero-G graphite fly rod in hand.

Attached was a streamer that weighed approximately the same as a Trident nuclear missile sub, which in all likelihood was more dangerous to the man casting it than it was to the trout (note to Undergrounders: when depth-charge streamers are involved, wear a hat, and fish something with a warranty.)

This, my friends, was not going to be pleasant.

Welcome to the World of Video. Now Here’s Your Ass.

Complicating matters was the presence of a two videographers and a sound man; people whose express purpose in life was to tape every embarrassing move, bad cast, odd utterance and trout I farmed.

While waiting for me to screw up (and tape it), the crew shot the pretty stuff.

Well, OK. Maybe that wasn’t what they said they were doing, but it’s clearly what they were trying to accomplish.

They also foolishly believed I’d be able to talk intelligently about Nestle issues while I fished, when instead I mostly was focused on not soiling myself on camera.

Expectations, it seems, are rarely our friends.

Clearly – with Smethurst capable of busting out a couple good trout even under awful conditions – they were looking to the Underground for something else, like… comic relief.

Welcome to the McCloud. Now here’s Your Ass.

Ultimately, Smethurst – a fly fisherman with more than two decades of guiding experience – pounded up good half-dozen nice trout and few smaller ones using techniques I’m willing to classify as “manly.”

Meanwhile, your hero acquitted his comic relief role beautifully; at our first stop, I got one ponderous wiggle from a nice fish on the streamer, didn’t hook up, and got halfway through the big fish temper tantrum before remembering the camera.

Later, I had another “feelgood” on the streamer, but figured I had the world by the tail when we found a couple rising fish.

This, my friends, was the kind of fishing I’m supposed to be good at; a hand-to-fin confrontation with the wily trout at the intersection of our native habitats.

Welcome to Rising Trout. Now Here’s Your Ass.

In one sense, I set the stage for my own humbling; we were headed for a spot I thought would fish well at high flows, but found another angler already fishing it. Turns out he was an Underground reader (therefore, his sanity is suspect), and he rather urbanely left when he saw us coming.

There my Underground friends, we found fish actually working a foam line, and while Smethurst went headhunting with the big stuff, I watched a big trout roll on (but not actually take) my first cast with an October Caddis.

My confidence swelled. I was going to catch nice trout while somebody recorded it for the rest of the world to see.

I stepped closer to the edge….

Welcome to Greek Tragedy. Now Here’s Your Ass.

Anyone with a working knowledge of Greek drama knows what’s coming; hubris is always rewarded with disaster (thus concluding today’s highbrow literary reference).

First, I lost my footing and narrowly avoided a swim.

Then I missed two grabs on the October Caddis.

Then switched to a small parachute (closer to the bug they were really eating).

Then missed four of those. Then hooked a small trout… briefly.

Then hooked another small trout… briefly.

Suddenly, soiling myself on camera was looking a lot better, and probably wouldn’t have been as damaging to my reputation.

Ultimately – while Smethurst landed a handful more nice trout on the big, heavily weighted October Caddis nymph – I banked exactly one ten-inch trout, an act which only made me feel like the dullard cousin at the family reunion.

No way that tiny McCloud rainbow trout makes the show.

I did, however, distinguish myself nicely as the day’s netman; apparently, netting an already-hooked fish is more within my skill horizon.

So Mom, break out the VCR – I think I’m going to be on TV.

Welcome to Television, Nestle. Now Here’s Your Ass.

Comedy aside, the conditions sucked and the crew was really cool (thought apparently underpaid to the point they were foraging in the blackberry bushes for food), and yes, I did get a kick out of the chance to talk about the McCloud River, Nestle, and some of the other water-related issues facing my area.

After all, within an hour’s drive of our meeting point, I’m looking at three significant trout-and-water-related problems (McCloud/Nestle; Klamath/Pacificorp; Shasta Dam/Westlands).

Still, the always-gorgeous McCloud River and Nestle were the main topics of conversation, and it’s nice to know both will get the recognition they so richly deserve come next June or July, though for entirely different reasons.

Fall color on the McCloud kept the crew busier than the fishing.

Welcome to On The Rise.

My first review of the On The Rise TV show was lukewarm; it felt stiff and unnatural, and yes, my expectations for the conservation angle were probably unrealistic.

Still, it was promising enough that I taped the whole season. Sure enough, as the season progressed, the shows got better, with Smethurst relaxing and enjoying the fishing.

The episode on the Gunnisson was pure fun on a stick; watching Smethurst laugh his way through an electro-shocking survey might be one of the better moments in fly fishing broadcast history.

I don’t know what the next season holds for On the Rise, but I give Trout Unlimited (still the other, less-famous TU) credit for mixing in a conservation angle.

That’s why – when Smethurst asked me exactly what the Trout Underground really was, I told him it was originally just one writer’s perspective on fly fishing – but that it had morphed into something bigger pretty quickly.

And yes, I did say it was time for fly fishermen to step it up a little on the conservation front, and that the Internet offered far more opportunities for that than did a magazine or even a fly fishing TV show, quick action being impossible with the latter two.

Welcome to the McCloud… Well, Wait...

My recent encounter with the McCloud suggests it’s not very much fun, and that despite fishing the few hand-picked spots I thought would offer the best chance.

Until the flows drop, I’d stay the hell away from the McCloud – something Smethurst heard me repeat several times. I was dying to put those guys on the Upper Sac October Caddis hatch, if only because you could actually stand in the river.

Then again, the Upper Sacramento’s been pretty crowded the last couple weeks, and though I’ve busted out a couple of big evenings there lately, it’s possible I’d have spent the day letting video nerves drive a way-too-fast, way-too-soon hookset – and without the existence of a handy excuse (say, raging flood waters).

See you on TV, Tom Chandler.

trout unlimited, on the rise, mccloud river, nestle, fly fishing, fishing, frank smethurst

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The original contract was negotiated and approved without the benefit of any real public input, Nestle’s Environmental Impact Report was more prank than serious document, and the company took an absolute battering.

Now – with the contract dead and Nestle angling for a new deal, a series of public meetings are going to be held in an attempt to avoid the nastiness of the past.

The first is this Wednesday (Oct. 22), and to help those rushing from work, the McCloud Watershed Council is hosting a FREE PIZZA-fest prior to the meeting (those are words that will warm the heart of any fly fisherman). Here’s an email from the Watershed Council:

Nestle hired Kearns and West, a public involvement firm, to facilitate a series of public meetings regarding Nestlé’s new project proposal. This is a perfect opportunity for all perspectives to give their input into a new process.

To encourage attendance, and in an effort to bring McCloud residents together, the McCloud Watershed Council is hosting a FREE “Pre-Nestle Meeting” Dinner. If you don’t have time to cook and also make it to the meeting, then please come to the free pizza dinner at 5pm in the courtyard on Main Street next to the McCloud Hotel.

What: Community Meeting About Nestlé’s Proposed Water Bottling
Plant in McCloud
When: Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: McCloud High School Gymnasium, 133 Campus Way, McCloud
Why: Everyone who has a stake in the future of the McCloud community, economy and the McCloud River watershed deserves to have their voice heard.

Sadly, I committed long ago to teaching a class on Wednesday night, so I won’t make it to this meeting. Damn.

Still, locals – and anyone up visiting who worries about this (and other) threats to the McCloud watershed – should try to attend (free pizza).

See you there next time, 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.

Nor have I pounded the Underground’s favorite whipping boy good corporate neighbor Nestle lately, but – via This is Fly – I found the perfect means for doing so while still providing a high quality, marketing-related entertainment experience for the Undergrounders:

See you drinking “Mitch,” Tom Chandler.

Mt. Shasta Brewing Wins!

We’ve chronicled the first amendment struggles of Mt. Shasta Brewing (and the tastiness of their Shastafarian Porter) against the ATF (or whatever they’re calling themselves today).

Basically, the feds objected to the brewery’s “Try Legal Weed” bottlecap, and most of the civilized (and by “civilized” we mean “beer-drinking”) world erupted in disgust.

Be disgusted no longer, Undergrounders – this just in from Mt. Shasta Brewing owner Vaune Dillmann:

Yesterday afternoon we got a registered/certified letter – return signature required from our “buds” at the U.S. Treasury/TTB – stating that they will now accept our bottle caps and slogan/logo as is!

TTB agreed we are in fact proper in our Bottle Cap appeal; that we are not inferring a drug reference, nor are we confusing the public as to what is in our beer bottles!

Far be it from us to claim responsibility for something we had nothing everything to do with, but we can only draw one completely and wholly erroneous legal conclusion from this whole thing: Drinking Beer is Protected Under the First Amendment.

Dillmann’s now calling this caper the “Bottlecap heard ’round the world” episode, and we’ve been drinking too much beer to disagree.

Nestle Officially & Formally Capitulates

While they’d been making the right noises, Nestle finally agreed to begin a whole new contract negotiation with the McCloud Services District over their proposed McCloud water bottling plant, including such niceties as the gathering of real scientific data about water impacts.

In other words, after years of wrangling, intimidating legal efforts, community organizing and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots (see what I did there?) of bad/awful/embarrassing PR, Nestle’s finally doing the right thing.

Here’s a thought for Nestle: Consider doing the right thing from the start next time (silly us; that’s not their business model…)

It also means the McCloud Services District has a chance to Get It Right This Time. Let’s hope they do.

Good News Trifecta: Solar Power Discovery Promises to Revolutionize Stuff

This breaking energy news in from the Underground’s Egghead Patrol:

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

Woo-hoo! We’re all for saving the world, but the Underground’s Crack Team of Big Thinkers sees the deeper implications: abundant, sustainable, and largely free energy means the Undergrounders will throw off the burden of their Energy Oppressors, leaving more time to fly fish.

Sure, other news outlets will focus on the fact this discovery has the potential to save the world as we know it, but the Trout Underground sees beyond the hype.

No need to thank us with great big wads of cash. It’s just what we do.

See you at the news desk, 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.