Nestlé Obtains Permit to Continue to Take California Stream Water: NPR

The US Forest Service offered Nestlé a three-year license to continue to draw millions of gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest.

According to the offer, Nestlé Waters North America – the country's largest bottled water company – will be allowed to continue taking water from the Strawberry Creek watershed. This watershed is currently considered "weathered" and extraction must be allowed "where available water is consistent with the forest land management plan," according to the Associated Press, citing l & # 39; offer.

Nestle, which bottled water under the Arrowhead brand, has 60 days to decide whether or not to accept the terms of the offer, says the AP.

As NPR's Bill Chappell reported in December, Nestle, a division of the Swiss food company, says that it took an average of 62.6 million gallons of San Bernardino spring water each year from 1947 to 2015, but a two-year investigation by the California Water Board found that it lacked legal permits for much of that water

"The Water Board began investigating after several complaints were made against Nestle at California Drought Course Under the impulse of a 2015 article in the Desert Sun newspaper, the allegations against Nestle went on the charge that the giant company did not have the full rights over the water that she was selling to her harmful actions in the middle natur According to the Desert Sun Nestlé had operated under a permit issued to Arrowhead Puritas Waters Inc. in 1988. Arrowhead Puritas was acquired by Nestle in 1992.

"The revelation The officials allowed the company to use the license without review for 27 years, which sparked a wave of opposition and prompted the review of the license, as well as a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and a survey by California regulators, "the newspaper reports. A statement released Wednesday, Nestle said that it had provided 70 environmental studies during the application process and that it would "carefully consider" the Forest Service's offer.

We are pbadionate about water and we too, "said the company. "We take our responsibility as a California Water Manager and Arrowhead 's successful operations for over a century highlight our commitment to long – term sustainability.

Nestlé's opponents claim that the company has exhausted adverse effect on the wildlife that the waterway supports. They asked that the tap of the company be turned off.

After the Desert Sun :

"The water of Arrowhead Springs was bottled for the first time there is more than one". a century. Natural rock formation in the shape of an arrowhead on a mountain north of San Bernardino and its hot and cold springs. The hot springs were once the central attraction of a glamorous resort, which closed at the end of the years. 1950 and which is now The wells and water channels on the mountainside have been authorized under various permits since 1929. Officials of the Forest Service have stated that the last Nestlé license of 1978 issued to his Arrowhead predecessor Puritas Waters Inc., indeed while they were reviewing the application for renewal of the company. "