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Maine deals setback to Nestle's 40+ year private water contract

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M

Messofanego

Banned
Corporations dealing in corruption and shaky contracts, shocking news!

Nestle sells water as Poland Spring.

Portland Press Herald: Nestle Waters' bid to sign Fryeburg deal suffers setback - Sept 19th, 2014

Portland Press Herald: Maine PUC chairman drops out of Poland Spring water case - October 15th, 2013

Al Jazeera: Conflict of interest claims persist in Maine’s Nestle water case - Sept 27th, 2013

Nestle Waters North America, which bottles Maine water under the Poland Spring brand, has been dealt a potential setback in its effort to secure long-term supplies from Fryeburg’s privately held water utility at prices critics say are too low.

The proposed contract should not be approved by the Public Utilities Commission, a PUC staff report made public Friday recommended.

The report, by PUC hearing examiner Matthew Kaply, said the local utility – the family-controlled Fryeburg Water Co. – had been established to “convey to the village of Fryeburg a supply of pure water for domestic and other uses” and not to sell that supply as a “bulk commodity” to bottlers like Nestle.

The development raises the possibility that the PUC might invalidate not only the proposed contract but Nestle Waters’ current arrangement in Fryeburg as well. “I would say if this ruling were adopted by the commission and became final – and wasn’t vacated by the Supreme Court on appeal – that the existing contracts should be considered void,” said Bruce McGlauflin, the attorney for several opponents of the contract in the proceedings.

“The report validates everything we’ve been saying all along: that this 25-year proposal with options of extending it to 45 years … was a shameful sweetheart deal with a multinational corporation to strip a local community of its right to water,” said Nisha Swinton of Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group that has been campaigning against the contract.
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After kicking out the conflict-of-interest PUC commissioners who had ties to Nestle, new PUC commissioners are not into this contract.
135984-20130820_PUC8.jpg
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Thomas Welch, chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, had been Nestle Waters’ attorney until his appointment to the PUC in March 2011. John Patriquin/StaffPhotographer
Conflicts of interest

The report is indeed nonbinding, as the PUC commissioners themselves have the final say in whether to approve the contract. But none of the three regular commissioners will be ruling on this case, as all three have recused themselves because of past associations with the conglomerate, a subsidiary of Swiss foods giant Nestle SA.

The Legislature had to step in and pass a new law allowing for the appointment of alternate commissioners after the second commissioner recused himself, denying the body a quorum. Under the new law, Gov. Paul LePage appointed two retired Maine judges – Paul Rudman and John Atwood – to step in.

The state’s public advocate, Timothy Schneider, who is charged with representing ratepayers, also recused himself over his past ties to Nestle Waters, which he represented as an attorney for Pierce Atwood.
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Some history:
Like other water utilities, Fryeburg Water is not allowed to sell water to major customers at a rate different from the regular tariff it charges its ordinary customers. But in the 1990s, members of the Hastings family, which controls the company, got around that barrier by creating a pass-through entity, Pure Mountain Springs, which purchased water drawn from the local aquifer at the low “tariff” rate, then sold it to Nestle at an undisclosed markup.

In 2008, Nestle purchased the pass-through company outright, and the parties began negotiating the new contract. Under the contract, Nestle would continue to pay the “tariff” rate of about a tenth of a cent a gallon and would have exclusive rights to commercial bottling of the utility’s water.

Opponents have wanted to learn what Nestle Waters was willing to pay the pass-through company for its water before 2008, as a way of determining the fair market price for the water Nestle wants to pump from Fryeburg’s springs for the next 25 to 40 years. Nestle Waters has refused to disclose what the rate was, and at a hearing a year ago, Fryeburg Water President Hugh Hastings and his son John, who ran Pure Mountain Springs, testified they couldn’t remember what it was.

The report released Friday also said the granting of exclusive rights to Nestle violated relevant laws obliging the utility “to provide service in a non-discriminatory manner.”

The PUC will receive submissions from the parties in the case in early October and the commissioners will make a decision thereafter.
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The cause against Nestle has been protested in a petition and brought to attention of the governor, which now has 177,000+ signatures since last year.

Portland Daily Sun: Fryeburg residents protest proposed Nestle Waters contract - 13th June, 2013
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Fryeburg, Maine is one of the towns featured in the Tapped (2009) documentary, which is worth a watch if you're curious about the effect of privatization of water and how the bottled water industry works with some insight to the propaganda.

portland-press-herald_3782188.jpg
 
K

knirk

Banned
So much corruption in the world it's scary, also that SEO shit is really fucked up.

Thank god I live in a country where bottled water is very rare and we got excellent tap water so there's no need for such products.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Nestle's Peter Brabeck sort of backpedalled on water not deserving to be a human right last year (Feb 2013):
The Guardian: Nestlé's Peter Brabeck: our attitude towards water needs to change
"The fact is they [activists] are talking first of all only about the smallest part of the water usage," he says. "I am the first one to say water is a human right. This human right is the five litres of water we need for our daily hydration and the 25 litres we need for minimum hygiene.

"This amount of water is the primary responsibility of every government to make available to every citizen of this world, but this amount of water accounts for 1.5% of the total water which is for all human usage.

"Where I have an issue is that the 98.5% of the water we are using, which is for everything else, is not a human right and because we treat it as one, we are using it in an irresponsible manner, although it is the most precious resource we have. Why? Because we don't want to give any value to this water. And we know very well that if something doesn't have a value, it's human behaviour that we use it in an irresponsible manner.
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Although he'd be the last person on Earth who I'd take as an expert opinion on water scarcity and whether a certain majority of water should be handled differently.
 
sakipon

sakipon

Member
Messofanego said:
Nestle's Peter Brabeck sort of backpedalled on water not deserving to be a human right last year (Feb 2013):
The Guardian: Nestlé's Peter Brabeck: our attitude towards water needs to change


Although he'd be the last person on Earth who I'd take as an expert opinion on water scarcity and whether a certain majority of water should be handled differently.
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I do agree water should not be used as irresponsibly as it is now... but not sure what the solution to that should be.
 
F

FloatingDivider

Member
so how exactly does privatizing water benefit anyone? At which point do we start bottling oxygen since every natural resource needs to have worth ascribed to it by some private company lest people not be cognizant of the value it provides in their life. I've had virtually free tap water my entire life and i'm fully aware of the value itholds.
 
P

Paskil

Member
T

that1dude24

Member
Messofanego said:
Nestle's Peter Brabeck sort of backpedalled on water not deserving to be a human right last year (Feb 2013):
The Guardian: Nestlé's Peter Brabeck: our attitude towards water needs to change


Although he'd be the last person on Earth who I'd take as an expert opinion on water scarcity and whether a certain majority of water should be handled differently.
Click to expand...

"And we know very well that if something doesn't have a value, it's human behaviour that we use it in an irresponsible manner."

responsible, rational capital markets. let the invisible hand partition the resource and caress my doubts of efficacy
 
A

AntoneM

Member
Messofanego said:
Nestle's Peter Brabeck sort of backpedalled on water not deserving to be a human right last year (Feb 2013):
The Guardian: Nestlé's Peter Brabeck: our attitude towards water needs to change


Although he'd be the last person on Earth who I'd take as an expert opinion on water scarcity and whether a certain majority of water should be handled differently.
Click to expand...

Hope this dude doesn't have a lawn or plants on his property or on any Nestle property, hope he doesn't have his cars washed, hope he doesn't flush after only peeing... etc.

That would just be irresponsible.

edit
And if he does any of these thing I hope he uses Nestle water bought at a store to do it.
 
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