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Why This Matters: It is unconscionable that the largest food company in the world takes groundwater, puts it in bottles, and sells it back to poor communities in the state whose own drinking water supplies are some of the most costly in the country and have previously been tainted with toxic chemicals. And now, due to the pandemic, bottled water is more expensive than ever in Michigan.House Democrats are investigating the company’s practices. Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said “Where my constituents are having their water shut off due to exorbitant bills, we have Nestle up the road profiting millions off the water my community is being denied.”
Michigan Citizens for Water
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation and local Indigenous nations challenged the permit due to the concern that the increased pumping will hurt the ecology of the Chippewa Creek watershed. But, according to the Detroit News, the judge ruled that the proposed pumping is “reasonable under common law principles of water law in Michigan.” Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation vowed to continue their fight, saying “Unfortunately, the laws of our state still allow private corporations to profit from our natural resources but do not seem to support public health and welfare. Those laws must change so that the human right to clean, affordable water and sanitation becomes the top priority of government, rather than the promotion of corporate greed and destruction of environmental support systems.”
Florida Fighting Too
E&E News reported in January that Nestlé wants to take more than 1 million gallons of water a day out of a spring in northcentral Florida to sell back to the public for a one-time application fee of $115. The company already extracts 3 million gallons of spring water EACH DAY in Florida from four groundwater sources and if granted its latest permit, it would increase to more than 4 million.
Nestlé Says They Support Communities
MLive reports that recently “Nestlé announced $2 million in grants to support conservation projects in Michigan’s Muskegon River watershed. The company has been trying to combat negative perceptions through social media efforts and blog posts that portray Nestle as a responsible environmental steward with minimal impact.”
Florida and Georgia faced off again in the Supreme Court on Monday, asking the Justices to settle their long-running dispute over water. The problem is that there is not enough to go around in three rivers the emanate in Georgia but flow through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.
Why This Matters: The states failed to reach a water compact more than a decade ago — now they have nowhere else to go but the Supreme Court, which has “original jurisdiction” over a dispute between two states.
The National Flood Insurance Program is revising its rates for flood coverage on April 1st, and to reflect current risks, and experts say they may need to quadruple. FEMA’s new risk rating system will use a model proposed by the First Street Foundation, which found that by 2050, insurance premiums on flood-risk homes would need to rise sevenfold to cover the costs of annual damage.
Why This Matters: The rising premiums create a conundrum for the Biden administration, which has promised to honor science in federal policymaking but has also pledged to address economic issues facing the working class.
By Bob Irvin, President and CEO, American Rivers A vision is emerging in the Pacific Northwest that would not only save iconic salmon, but boost clean energy and vital infrastructure, and honor treaties with Northwest tribes — revitalizing an entire region and building resilience in the face of climate change. Salmon in the Pacific Northwest […]
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