[Dialogue] Emailing: Bottled Water Industry Faces Growing OppositionLast week's decision in York County may be part of a national backlash. - CommonDreams.org.htm

Mon Jun 30 16:51:48 EDT 2008

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Published on Monday, June 30, 2008 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine)
<http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=196909&ac=PHnws>  

Bottled Water Industry Faces Growing Opposition
Last week's decision in York County may be part of a national backlash. 

by Kevin Wack

Last week's decision by a York County water board to delay a vote on whether
to sell municipal water to Nestle Corp., the owner of Poland Spring, did not
happen in a vacuum.
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0630_11.jpg> 0630 11

* Last month in McCloud, Calif., after encountering opposition to what would
have been the largest water bottling plant in the country, Nestle announced
plans to significantly reduce the plant's size.
* Earlier this month in Enumclaw, Wash., the city council rejected a
proposal to allow Nestle to build another such plant.
* And last Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors voted to phase out use of
bottled water for municipal employees.

Across the country, opposition to bottled water is building, amid growing
concerns about the industry's environmental impact and rising fears about
private control of public water supplies.

"There's no question that there is a groundswell," said Ruth Caplan,
coordinator of Defending Water for Life, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign
that opposes the bottled water industry.

There are several reasons for the backlash to bottled water. Some of it is
driven by fears about global warming - given the amount of oil needed to
bottle and transport the water.

Some stems from concerns about the chemical makeup of plastic water bottles.

Some of the opposition is a byproduct of the huge price disparity between
bottled water and the kind of water that comes from the tap for free.

Here in Maine, some of the local opposition to Poland Spring's operations
has stemmed from the traffic generated by the trucks that transport the
water.

Perhaps the biggest factor, though, is a fear that as bottled water becomes
more popular, private corporations are gaining more control over a natural
resource that is central to life.

"The fundamental issue is, who owns the water?" said Jim Olson, an attorney
for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, which has been engaged in a
legal battle with Nestle. "If this company gets to do it, all companies get
to do it, and you're not going to be able to say no in the future."

Caplan expressed concern that the bottled water industry is turning water
into a commodity, the price of which will be determined by the market.

"What they're trying to do is get us to think that drinking water comes out
of their bottles, and water to wash with comes out of the tap," she said.

Tom Brennan, a natural resources manager for Poland Spring, said the
company's products are not in competition with tap water. And, he said,
there's enough water in the ground for both uses.

Poland Spring hopes to draw as much as 250,000 gallons per day from the
Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District, which uses up to 7
million gallons per day, and has recently found sources to provide an
additional 3 million gallons each day.

"We're not depleting aquifers. That would be absolutely counterproductive,"
Brennan said.

He and other defenders of the industry note that soda and beer also require
water, but they don't provoke the same opposition as bottled water.

Brennan acknowledged that opposition to the industry is growing, but he put
it in the context of growth in the popularity of bottled water.

"To be quite honest, I don't pretend to understand it," Brennan said. "I
think it's isolated, yet loud."

Poland Spring currrently gets water from more than 20 wells in eight Maine
communities, including Fryeburg, Denmark and Dallas Plantation. The company
has bottling plants in Hollis and Poland Spring, and - in response to rising
demand - plans to open a third plant in Kingfield.

In York County, the water district's recent decision to delay a vote on the
Poland Spring deal followed a public meeting where more than 100 people
expressed their opposition.

The water district's trustees voted to postpone their decision until after
an independent scientific review of the data underlying the proposal.

Emily Posner, the state leader of Defending Water for Life, said she was
heartened by the outpouring of opposition to the deal. She said that people
from all over Maine came out to stand up against the corporate control of
water.

Brennan, of Poland Spring, countered that many of the people protesting the
deal are not from the Kennebunk area or even from Maine.

"And that in my mind is somewhat troubling," he said.

C 2003- 2008 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.

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17 Comments so far 

1.	

	indijo <http://ts-variant.net>  June 30th, 2008 1:26 pm 

	I'm losing my apartment and due to camp out and join the homeless
crowd in August. Can somebody tell me just exactly how I am going to survive
if bottled water production is terminated? Well, you phoney environmentalist
brainiacs, let's have it.

2.	

	Nietzsche June 30th, 2008 1:37 pm 

	".that in my mind is somewhat troubling" I'll bet it is also
troubling TO his dream of being able to hold hostage the most precious
essential for life on the planet.

	No doubt it is "troubling" to him and others like him that we serfs
may not much longer be able to afford being herded into the malls for junk
that we do not need and cannot afford. Making us pay for water may be the
most ingenious AND the most immoral marketing scheme ever.

3.	

	bbr-001 June 30th, 2008 1:43 pm 

	indijo: I'm really sorry you're losing your place. Looks like you
are part of an unfortunately growing trend. 

	There were homeless folks long before bottled water, or even
plastic. You can buy a canteen at a K-Mart or Walmart or thrift store for
not much more than the cost of a couple bottles of water, and there are
always rest rooms, garages and kitchens that will fill it for you. Even in
the old west, when a cowboy walked into a saloon he had to pay for the
liquor but water was free.

	God Bless!

4.	

	bbr-001 June 30th, 2008 1:46 pm 

	Always remember: Evian is naive spelled backwards.

5.	

	indijo <http://ts-variant.net>  June 30th, 2008 1:59 pm 

	bbr-001:

	water from a restroom? You've got to be kidding. Tap-water
everywhere is so bad it makes me sick. 

	No, I'm afraid you're not really seeing the problem. Not only are
free tap-water sources extremely scarce these days, the ones that still
exist can make a body ill.

6.	

	Recycle1 June 30th, 2008 2:00 pm 

	indijo-Most parks still have drinking fountains or bathrooms you can
fill a cup from. Though if you are going to be homeless, how will you afford
bottled water? If you're still employed, you could try filling up at your
place of employment with a canteen/water bottle as bbr stated.

	Privitization of water is scary stuff. So is teaching the public
that to have good tasting water, they need to buy it instead of getting a
filter for their faucet, or other ways of combatting mineral tastes.

	However, how many folks even drink water as their first choice? I
see more soda being consumed than agua.

7.	

	mairs June 30th, 2008 2:25 pm 

	I'm sorry about your circumstances indijo, but there you go, a
perfect example of what the corporations have done to us. Making us think
that the only thing fit to drink is what they sell us.

	I was moving a fish tank to a company office late at night one time.
In it were fancy goldfish. I didn't have any dechlorinator, and it was too
late to go buy some, so instead of using tap water I used bottled water that
I had with me. The fish started dying in about ten minutes. Their mucous
covering started sloughing off in great shreds and they were gasping at the
surface, their eyes going bloodshot. This took ONLY TEN MINUTES TO HAPPEN.
We quickly ran and got tap water and changed their water, not caring if
there was chlorine it or not. Luckily we did it in time and the fish
survived after taking a week to get over their ten minute poison bath in
"pure" bottled water. Can we perhaps consider fish to be the canaries in the
coal mine?

	Bottled water is likely to be crap, and they've got you believing
that it's the only thing you can put in your body, when that instance proved
it can be deadly enough to kill fish. I think you need to rethink your
priorities, indijo.

8.	

	jcrumb <http://www.crumbproducts.com>  June 30th, 2008 2:47 pm 

	WELL..INDIJO.IT'S CALLED A..."CANTEEN" IT WAS PERHAPS..THE
FIRST.."BOTTLED WATER"..UMM..LEMME SEE..HOW ELSE TO DESCRIBE ANY BASIC WATER
CARRYING DEVICE..HMMM.UHHH..WELL..YOU COULD ALWAY'S..UHH...SAVE A BOTTLE
NOW.OR..I DON'T THINK ANYONE IS TALKING ABOUT OUTLAWING OR IN ANY WAY
REMOVING..THE ACTUAL "WATER BOTTLE" AS IN BICYCLE WATER
BOTTLES..ETC..ETC..ETC.

	SO YOUR "POINT" IS..REALLY..UHH..WELL..MAYBE THIS IS WHY YOU WERE
UNABLE TO KEEP YOUR HOME.BECAUSE IF YOU CANNOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO CARRY AND
TRANSPORT WATER WITHOUT A.GAS STATION FULL OF PRE-PACKAGED BOTTLES.THAT
ACTUALLY COST ALLOT MORE THAN JUST FILLING AND CARRYING A
CANTEEN.WELL..SIR..I AM SORRY TO SAY.YOU BASICALLY ARE NOT "FIT" ENOUGH TO
PARTICIPATE IN A GREAT MANY OF THIS NATIONS.."PROCESSES"..

	PLEASE..CARRYING WATER IS NOT DEPENDANT ON PRE-PACKAGED WATER
BOTTLES WITH THE WATER IN THEM.WOW!

	AND..NOT ONLY THAT..INDIJO..BUT..MAYBE NOW YOU CAN USE SOME OF THAT
SPARE CHANGE FER SUMTHIN ELSE.AS BOTTLED WATER IS ..WELL..EXPENSIVE
FRANKLY.COMPARED TO FILLING A CANTEEN AT THE LIBRARY.

	SO..YOU PHONY HOMELESS PEOPLE OUT THERE..LET'S HAVE IT..PHONY? YEAH!
THAS RIGHT..PHONY..CAUSE IF YOU DO NOT KNO ENOUGH TO SURVIVE WITHOUT BOTTLED
WATER ON TAP AT EVERY CONVENIENCE STORE.YO ARE NOT CAPABLE OF SURVIVNG ON
THE STREETS.PERIOD!

	LOOKS LIKE YOUR NOT GONNA MAKE IT..INDIJO.SORRY..HOPEFULLY IT WON'T
BE A COUPLE OF CHILDREN THAT FIND YOUR CORPSE IN THE PARK..THAT KIND OF
THING COULD REALLY SCAR EM FOR LIFE.

	I CAN SEE THE HEADLINES NOW..:

	" HOMLESS MAN DIES OF DEHYDRATION IN DOWNTOWN AREA.COULD NOT FIND
BOTTLED WATER.."

	WELL..WHATEVER..THERES' ALWAY'S "THE BRIDGE".KEEP YOUR OPTIONS
OPEN..

	SURVIVAL OF THE .AT VERY LEAST..SEMI-FITTEST..JEEZIS..

	"?"

9.	

	baruch June 30th, 2008 3:00 pm 

	indijo, when I have camped in unlikely places and asked people for
tap water they have always said yes. If you're friendly about it, most
people will be kind to you.

10.	

	overkill June 30th, 2008 3:11 pm 

	There's nothing like overpriced tap water in a plastic bottle
flavored with plastic mold release.

11.	

	sung425 June 30th, 2008 3:15 pm 

	Indijo. Bummer dude. I was homeless 20-years ago but at a time when
we had a more generous and socially reponsible society. Get yourself a water
filter pump and a good knife. Hope you live in a good climate. Cheers.

12.	

	dskate June 30th, 2008 3:40 pm 

	How about an amendment to the Constitution making access to fresh
water a human right for every U.S. citizen. Are there any water resource
organizations considering this?

13.	

	indijo <http://ts-variant.net>  June 30th, 2008 3:48 pm 

	Give me a break. I've been drinking bottled water for years and I'm
doing fine. So don't try to sell me on that bottled-water-is-bad-for-you bs.
Bottled water makes camping out easier, period. Take it away from me and you
make my homeless situation 10x more difficult. I doubt any of the people in
this forum know what it is like. There are no computers and online
connections out there.

	Please don't start demonizing me just because I don't agree with you
people. I posted a link in another forum to an article about reusable
water-bottles and nobody, absolutely nobody, even bothered to check it out. 

	btw, just because I'm homeless doesn't mean I don't have money for
bottled water. K-rist! There's a big difference between the price of bottled
water and the price of an apartment.

14.	

	chupito June 30th, 2008 4:17 pm 

	Depending on where you live, you must be drinking about 3 liters of
water a day, approximately 6 bottles. I guess that you buy them from a
vending machine at about $1 a pop. So, in one month, you are spending about
$180 on water only. If you team up with a couple of bottled-water dependent
homeless people, you may rent an apartment, and then bottle your own water.
Perhaps you can also sell the water that you bottle in your apartment to
other bottled-water junkies who will swear it is better than the one coming
out of the rest-room. That's a business plan!

15.	

	kittyc June 30th, 2008 4:38 pm 

	Someone should tell Brennan that Nestle is not from Maine either.

16.	

	Goose2 June 30th, 2008 4:39 pm 

	Indijo. I sympathize with you, but this is about right and wrong and
stopping bottled water is right on so many levels. Letting people have the
choice to get bottled water just has to be eliminated and since people won't
make the decision not to buy it on their own, we have to make it for them.
You are going to be better off in the long run.

17.	

	Goose2 June 30th, 2008 4:43 pm 

	Chupito - Water here in the supermarket in CA in the Bay Area is
$1.25 for 3.78 liters. It comes in a recyclable plastic bottle which we in
fact recycle.

	Our water in our community is from well water on the side of a
mountain that has copper in it from the natural geology and nitrates from
farming. We use our tap water for cooking (after a filter) and washing, but
it tastes like crap. 

	Why should we not be able to buy and use the water we want to use?

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