Nestlé has absorbed nearly 2 billion gallons of water from below over the past 15 years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Despite its name, there are no mountains near the water source of the Nestlé “Ice Mountain” spring. Bottled water is pumped from wells located under creeks and wetlands between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Nestlé has been drawing 250 gallons per minute from the bottom of its waterways since the early 2000s, and soon that number will increase to 400 gallons per minute.
That’s 200 million gallons of free water a year that the state of Michigan donates to a private, for-profit company for just $200.
The cost of local ecosystems is inestimable.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, trout can no longer be found in streams that were previously known to be trout.
Citizens and local scientists have been measuring water levels in streams since Nestlé arrived on site, as neither Nestlé nor the state has monitored them.
It’s low and sinking every month, says Jim Maturin, 83, a retired lawyer who takes measurements along Chippewa Creek as well as north of the Chippewa River.
Maturin says he didn’t see any trout in the river last summer. EQM records confirm the existence of trout for 18 years.
“It’s different from the current one,” she told AFP. It is “narrower and warmer” compared to the “cold” water of its youth.
“The trout can’t live there because the water is much warmer,” she said.
“If you look at these sewers, they’re a historical landmark,” Osceola City Manager Tim Ladd said.
“You don’t have to be a geologist or a hydrologist to be able to see these water levels,” he added. “The water level in the lake is lower today than it was two years ago.”
Michigan received more than 80,000 comments against Nestlé’s request to increase supplies to 400 gallons per minute, but agreed.
The citizens of Osceola are ready to press charges.
It’s not the first time they’ve seen Nestlé.
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation sued the company in 2001 when residents of nearby Micosta County feared groundwater pumping was diverting the Dead Creek and wetlands into the same watershed as the town of Osicola.
The residents won their case and Nestlé was forced to temporarily stop pumping. After Nestlé’s appeal, a judge ruled in 2009 that the company could capture an average of 218 gallons per minute instead of the 400 gallons originally allowed.
State Sen. Rebecca Warren, D-Ann Arbor, was disappointed with the EQA’s endorsement.
“The people of Michigan know that no private company should be able to make a profit by undermining our state’s precious natural resources,” she told the Detroit Free Press.
