Support NeoGAF

[XiaNaphryz]

http://www.sbsun.com/environment-an...-water-operations-in-san-bernardino-mountains

SAN BERNARDINO >> Under pressure from environmental groups’ lawsuits, the U.S. Forest Service has begun a comprehensive environmental review of Switzerland-based bottled water giant Nestle’s Corp. continuing operations in a San Bernardino Mountain canyon.

In December, national forest service spokesman John Heil said his agency “has begun the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) review to analyze the effects of re-issuing a special use permit for Nestle.”

Established in 1970, NEPA requires the federal government to use all practical means to create and maintain conditions “under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony.”

It requires agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.

“The forest has assigned an interdisciplinary team and is developing the proposed action. When the proposed action is fully developed, the public will be invited to submit comments through the scoping process,” Heil wrote, in a statement.

Since its permit expired, in 1988, Nestle has been drawing what now amounts to millions of gallons of water from the rugged Strawberry Canyon in the San Bernardino Mountains, north of San Bernardino.

Under Forest Service regulations, expired special use permits, like what Nestle has, remain in effect until they are either renewed or denied.

“We are pleased the USFS review process is underway,” said Jane Lazgin, spokeswoman for Nestle Waters North America. “We are working with the U.S. Forest Service through the permit renewal process, recognizing the permit remains in effect because the company took the proper steps to request the permit renewal before it became due.

For more than 120 years, the Arrowhead bottle water brand, under many different owners, has been fueled by spring water from the San Bernardino Mountains and other springs around the state.

NFS officials maintain that the backlog of expired permits has prohibited their review and update of Nestle’s operations, which provide water for the company’s Arrowhead brand of bottled water.

The canyon’s rich natural spring environment has made it an attractive to a diverse group of plant and animal species - including endangered species - and caught the attention of environmentalists concerned about the non-stop removal of water from this canyon during the fourth year of the California drought.

In October, environmentalists — led by the Center for Biological Diversity — filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Riverside, seeking to force the forest service to begin a scientific study on the effects of the water drawdown as part of its evaluation of the long-expired permit.

In April, an online community group collected more than 135,000 signatures to demand that Nestle discontinue all its operations in California.

Three of Nestle’s five statewide bottling operations are in Southern California.

In late November, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Los Angeles-based Courage Campaign Institute and the Story of Stuff Project, asked the federal district court in Riverside to quickly rule on the case, shut down Nestle’s approximately four-mile long Strawberry Canyon pipeline and order the Forest Service to begin its environmental study.

The Courage Campaign is the online community group that collected the signatures.

Lisa Belenky, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland, said her organization has heard the Forest Service would begin the NEPA process, but even now, the agency has filed no public documents indicating when the public comment period might be.

 

[Akronis]

Fuck Nestle, holy shit. What an awful company.

EDIT: I read reviewing as renewing lol

Regardless, Nestle sucks huge dick

 

[HK-47]

If anything happens that fucks with Nestle's day, it'll be a good day.

 

[rjinaz]

Fuck Nestle, holy shit. What an awful company.

EDIT: I read reviewing as renewing lol

Regardless, Nestle sucks huge dick

Lol I did the exact same thing.

 

[CyclopsRock]

It seems pretty weird that they need to be "pressured" into doing this kind of stuff.

 

[jelly]

The Umbrella Corporation.

Sure some money will find it's way into the right pockets.

 

[Shaanyboi]

this company is pure evil

they can fuck off

 

[goodcow]

NFS officials maintain that the backlog of expired permits has prohibited their review and update of Nestle’s operations, which provide water for the company’s Arrowhead brand of bottled water.

A 28 year backlog, apparently.

 

[Tesseract]

 

[AlexMogil]

 

[NimbusD]

Most surprising part of this, to me, is that Arrowhead bottled water has been around for 120 years? How is that?

Least surprising part to me: Nestle fucking shit up and not giving two shits, and will defend themselves to the bitter end.

 

[Famassu]

Good.

Have been trying to boycott all of their products ever since the CEO said some dumb shit about clean water not being a human right and all the other shit they do. It's kinda hard with all these hundreds of smaller companies actually being owned by Nestle, but as far as I know I haven't bought anything from them in about 3 or 4 years.

 

[AbsolutBro]

A 28 year backlog, apparently.

It seems pretty weird that they need to be "pressured" into doing this kind of stuff.

The sad truth is that for all the "small gub'mint" rhetoric, we need to hugely expand the number of auditors and investigators employed by various agencies. No one wants to hear that, but it's the truth. But those sorts of positions are constantly cut and downgraded (pay cuts, essentially) every time we cut the federal budget. There simply aren't enough investigators for the agencies that need them: IRS, SSA, OSHA, DOJ, etc. etc.

 

[M52B28]

Yet my parents and many people I know keep buying their bullshit. It's like people don't give a shit about the environment and cannot get a canteen to refill.

My dad hauled this shit to our shopping cart yesterday so that he could take it to work. Meanwhile, we have a handful of unused water bottles littering our house. It's like people know that the products that they are making are wasteful and are an artificial need, but they buy it anyways just because they 'need' water.

Boy, we would be saving so much more money, and the environment if people were to just take the time to fill their bottles.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

They had to do this under pressure and couldnt, y'know, do it cause it was fucked?

Man, fuck Nestle.