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[Piecake]

WEED, Calif. — The water that gurgles from a spring on the edge of this Northern California logging town is so pristine that for more than a century it has been piped directly to the wooden homes spread across hills and gullies.

To the residents of Weed, which sits in the foothills of Mount Shasta, a snow-capped dormant volcano, the spring water is a blessing during a time of severe and prolonged drought.

To the lumber company that owns the land where the spring is, the water is a business opportunity.

Roseburg Forest Products, an Oregon-based company that owns the pine forest where the spring surfaces, is demanding that the city of Weed get its water elsewhere.

For the past 50 years, the company charged the city $1 a year for use of water from the Beaughan Spring. As of July, it began charging $97,500 annually. A contract signed this year directs the city to look for alternative sources.

Roseburg has not made public what it plans to do with the water it wants to take back from the city. But it already sells water to Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring, which bottles it in Weed and ships it as far away as Japan. Crystal Geyser is looking to increase its overall supply.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/california-drought-weed-mount-shasta.html?_r=0

Wow, fuck these guys.

 

[ponpo]

“This mountain will talk,” she said. “The time will come.”

Some deep lore at the end of the article.

 

[Madness]

Won't be long till this happens everywhere. Freshwater is the resource of the 21st century. In Canada it is especially worrying as the country is not economically or militarily strong enough to prevent anything. Already corporations like Nestle bottle spring water for essentially free in BC and sell it at a massive profit everywhere. Taxpayer funded and maintained springs and aquifers and nestle only has to pay pennies per million liters or something.

 

[Shanlei91]

Some deep lore at the end of the article.

I would be shocked if it happened.

 

[Tubobutts]

Weed water?

 

[ponpo]

Won't be long till this happens everywhere. Freshwater is the resource of the 21st century. In Canada it is especially worrying as the country is not economically or militarily strong enough to prevent anything. Already corporations like Nestle bottle spring water for essentially free in BC and sell it at a massive profit everywhere. Taxpayer funded and maintained springs and aquifers and nestle only has to pay pennies per million liters or something.

Presumably efficient desalination will be a thing long before people start literally invading Canada for its fresh water.

 

[GoutPatrol]

Kind of bullshit headline right? It's not like the Japanese government has snuck in and stolen the water. Crystal Geyser is a huge company that sells water everywhere.

 

[Stinkles]

Kind of bullshit headline right? It's not like the Japanese government has snuck in and stolen the water. Crystal Geyser is a huge company that sells water everywhere.

Hyperbolic but not untrue. And an out of state logging company is selling the water and telling the town to suck it.

I'll allow it.

 

[hipbabboom]

Japanese women will make a yearly pilgrimage to pee into the water source before going back home to see if they're truly loved. It'll be great for tourism.

 

[Piecake]

Kind of bullshit headline right? It's not like the Japanese government has snuck in and stolen the water. Crystal Geyser is a huge company that sells water everywhere.

Its pretty clear from the title that its the company that is selling the water. As for Japan, it is mentioned in the article and is just to indicate that they are selling it elsewhere.