Water Wars

From Great Lakes Wiki

"The wars of the next century will be about water."

• Ismail Serageldin, former Vice President of the World Bank

Bottled water’s soaring popularity is consistent with a paradigm shift for the American people. Water flows freely from the tap, and no place in Michigan is more than six miles away from a water source, yet people feel the need to pay extraordinary amounts for bottled water. It’s truly capitalism at its best.

The Great American Rip-off

Under the new law, water removal isn't considered "diversion" unless the container holds more than 5.7 gallons

With brand names like Aquafina, Poland Springs, and Ice Mountain, the innocent little plastic bottles sold in convenience stores and grocers are seemingly filled with pristine spring water from vast reserves…somewhere. But there are no polar springs or crystal geysers in the Midwestern United States, where the Nestle Corporation (owned by the Swiss) is allowed to take up to 250,000 gallons of Great Lakes water per day and sell them to unwitting consumers at an enormous profit.

In February 2006, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a bill that will allow Nestle to continue plundering the Great Lakes for bottled water production, just so long as water is shipped in containers that are 5.7 gallons or less. At an average cost of $1.50 for a 20-ounce bottle, the corporation’s profits from drawing this water daily are anywhere from $500,000 to $1.8 million.

American consumers spent $10 billion on bottled water last year, making it the country’s second most popular beverage next to soft drinks. Consumption of bottled water has more than doubled in the past decade. Nestle is the world’s number one producer of bottled water. Calistoga, Ice Mountain, Perrier, and Poland Springs are its subsidiaries that are mainly sold in the Midwest. Coca-Cola (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) are the other prime competitors in this burgeoning market, but most water used for these brands is tap water, filtered and sold back to the public at an outrageous profit.

Nestle uses tap water in “some” of its brands, but has recently reaped the benefits of extrapolating groundwater from Michigan and surrounding states and provinces. Under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, corporations are protected from preferential treatment in access to natural resources, so Pepsi and Coke could be next to haul more and more water from the Great Lakes.

Win or Loss?

Perrier was purchased by Nestle Waters in 2001

James Clift, policy director of the Michigan Environmental Council, said his organization was very involved in the legislation and supported the final resolution. The resolution, which requires water bottling facilities to get a special permit, is “the most comprehensive in the country,” he said.

“For the first time, large water users in the state are required to get permits” from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Clift said. “All new water bottling facilities withdrawing more than 250,000 gallons a day have to get them.” But will this legislation be enough to prevent large-scale diversions? How long will it take a company to get a “special permit” to build pipelines to the Southwest and imperil the fragile ecosystem of the Great Lakes?

Granholm’s legislation focused on the impact of local water issues surrounding the diversion of lake water rather than the impact on the entire Great Lakes system. Provisions for “water use committees” were included, which would bring community members together to determine the best management practices for the area.

“The only one I’ve heard of so far that is toying with the idea is in the Lansing area, the tri-county planning commission,” Clift said. “The Board of Water and Light relies on ground wells for all its water, so they are hoping to get into some water use planning for this area.”

Jim Vollstaedt

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