The production and distribution of bottled water, such as Nestle’s Poland Spring, causes environmental problems. No studies have been conducted on the ecological effects of excessive groundwater pumping, so the relationship to surface water and the surrounding natural environment is unknown. While it is true that other beverages such as milk and beer also use great quantities of water, energy, and oil to produce, they do not already flow out of the tap almost free of charge.
Nestle is freely siphoning millions of gallons of Maine water into little plastic bottles and trucking it across the country to sell at hundreds or thousands of times the cost of tap water. This scenario is mirrored in rural communities around the country from Michigan to California, where Nestle’s water-removal projects deplete aquifers and harm the local economy by paying too little for the water they take.
Mainers need to reclaim control of local water resources for the public good, not as a commodity to be bought and sold by corporate water hunters.
Learn more at www.FoodAndWaterWatch.org/water/bottled.
Jamilla El-Shafei, Save Our Water
Kennebunk
Amy Dowley, Take Back the Tap
Washington DC
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