As California’s drought continues to worsen, residents and local governments are doing all that they can to preserve what little water they have left. The state has proposed emergency water regulations that would restrict outdoor water usage, and level up to $500 fines for wasting water in order to combat what has been called “the worst drought since record-keeping began in the late 1800s”. Considering the amount of effort that’s being put into fighting this drought, you can imagine how surprised and upset people were when they discovered that a Nestlé-owned Arrowhead plant is still exporting fresh water out of the state.
Located in the Morongo Band of Mission Indians reservation, the bottling plant draws straight from a horribly drought-stricken area, bottles it up, and exports it outside of the state. Since the plant is located on an American Indian reservation it’s exempt from oversight by local water agencies and is able to keep confidential information that plants in other areas would be required to disclose. This means that there is no way to know just how much water Nestlé is taking from this drought-stricken area.
While Nestlé is well within its legal rights to do this, many people are questioning whether it should be acceptable to allow a private corporation to take water from a desert region and then sell it for profit. In regions like this, springs are rare and underground aquifers have been declining for years. A Palm Desert resident asked, “Why is it possible to take water from a drought area, bottle it and sell it? It’s hard to know how much is being taken,” she continued. “We’ve got to protect what little water supply we have.” Read more about this story here.
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