Nestlé bottling took public Michigan water for under $100 a year in licensing fees

Evidence

In 2001, the bottled water company Perrier leased a piece of land from the owner of a private hunting preserve in Mecosta County, Michigan, and was granted a license by then-Governor John Engler for less than $100 per year allowing the company to pump 100–300 gallons of water per minute out of the local aquifer. Pumped out of the ground and piped 11 miles to Stanwood, the water is bottled and sold back to the public as the popular brand Ice Mountain, now owned by Nestlé Waters of North America. It is advertised on their website as “100% Mountain Spring Water” (www.icemountain.com) though anyone who knows the landscape of this region of the lower peninsula of Michigan knows there are no mountains anywhere near the plant. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1512

Categorization

• CANDY: flagged by the selector, no supporting note recorded
• SHARE: Could send to a Great Lakes regional reader: the ‘no mountains in Michigan’ branding irony is a ready conversation piece about corporate capture.
• XREF: connects to: Corporate water control persists through lawsuits and quietly seizing sources after grassroots wins — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1526; Nestlé disputed local water impacts the courts later found real — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1514

Broader Connections

• Nestlé disputed local water impacts the courts later found real #complicates (0.85) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1514