Oregon Ban on Commercial Water Bottling Could Leave Industry High and Dry
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County introduces nation’s first such sanction, as opposition grows in California and Montana.
The bottled water industry, thirsty for new sources as demand grows, is coming up dry in some places as communities around the country push back against bottling plants, citing drought concerns and environmental impacts.
This week, voters in Hood River County, Ore., approved the nation’s first ban on commercial water bottling in a measure that passed overwhelmingly Tuesday. The vote could scuttle an eight-year effort by a division of Swiss giant Nestlé SA to open a bottled water plant in the county town of Cascade Locks about 40 miles east of Portland.
Officials of the Nestlé Waters North America unit called the results disappointing.
“While we firmly believe this decision on a county primary ballot is not in the best interest of Cascade Locks, we respect the democratic process,” said Dave Palais, natural resource manager of the Nestlé subsidiary.
Nestlé officials wouldn’t comment on whether they would seek to overturn the ban in the courts. Before the vote, Rebecca Tweed, who coordinated a campaign against the measure, said such a legal challenge by someone in the industry or another group would be likely.
Elsewhere, some residents are rallying against a proposed water bottling plant in Flathead County, Mont.
In March, the U.S. Forest Service proposed an environmental review of Nestlé Waters North America’s longtime bottling operation in California’s San Bernardino Mountains, following complaints from activists.
Nestlé’s purchasing deal for spring water in Fryeburg, Maine, was upheld by a state court earlier this month after a yearslong fight by local opponents. Nestlé in 2009 retreated from a proposed plant in McCloud, Calif. after a long fight.
Opposition to bottled water pumping usually entails two concerns: that spring and stream flows will be reduced as a result, along with other environmental damage, and that water is a public resource that shouldn’t be privatized, Noah Hall, associate professor of law at Wayne State University, wrote in a 2009 research paper.
“Water should not be made into a commodity,” said Julia DeGraw, an organizer for Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based environmental group that has helped rally support against the plants across the country.
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