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This just in: The OCEOLA Township Planning Commission just denied the water permit for Nestlés. Evidently, the (growing) push back from activists all over the sate is having an impact. Stay tuned. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has not yet ruled. The People’s Tribune will follow this story.
The following are excerpts from an April press release from Michigan Citizens for Water Preservation over Governor Snyder’s gifts of the state’s water to the giant conglomerate, Nestlé.
Now is the time for leadership from Governor Snyder to halt the permit for Nestlé to increase their water taking in Evart, MI . . .
The people of Michigan have made Nestlé one of the most gifted companies in history. Nestlé has profited by taking and bottling tens of billions of gallons of Great Lakes Basin water while paying almost nothing in fees . . .
Millions of Michigan citizens are no longer willing to gift Nestle and want the current system to be abandoned and a new system developed . . .
Governor Snyder needs to call a moratorium now. Nestlé is seeking a permit for 210,000,000 gallons of water for a permit fee of $200. If Flint residents were allowed to pay the Nestlé rate for water, their annual household cost would be less than 75 cents, instead of more than $900, for water they can’t drink and don’t want to bathe in. There have been 90,000 Detroit residents without running water in their homes for failure to pay water/sewer bills. If these Detroiters were allowed to pay the Nestlé water rate, very few would owe more than a dollar . . .
Bottled water has gone from a novelty drink to the most popular purchased beverage in the US. Approximately 26 billion bottles a year. . . are being consumed in the US … water bottles must be included in the deposit laws of Michigan . . there is no ditch or section of road anywhere in the state that is likely to be free of discarded water bottles. Nestlé has been responsible for billions of these bottles and Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation calls upon Nestlé to begin an aggressive recycling program . . .
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation calls upon the DEQ to require that the US Geological Survey be responsible for all monitoring and data collection under the DEQ permits for water taking. . . The DEQ needs to change their permitting procedures to become transparent and provide the citizens of Michigan broad public notice and the opportunity to participate in the DEQ permitting activities [including] . . . permits for large scale water taking.
Governor Snyder must stop the gifting of Nestlé. It is in Governor Snyder’s hands. Clearly the people of the state are totally against further gifting.
Contact michiganCwaterC@gmail.com for information.
