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Sacramento City Council to discuss controversial Nestle Bottling Plant Tuesday; at issue is how residents are told to conserve, and firm has ‘unlimited' use of water

October 27, 2009 -- SACRAMENTO – While Sacramento residents are told to conserve water – limiting lawn watering and washing cars – corporations have virtually unlimited use, and at reduced rates, charged Save Our Water, opponents of a controversial Nestle Bottling Plant to be debated at the Sacramento City Council TUESDAY night at 6 p.m. 
 
The Council will meet at City Hall to discuss the creation of a special permit 
for new beverage bottling plants and a tiered pricing system for high volume 
water users in the city of Sacramento. 
 
Members from Save Our Water and other concerned citizens will be testifying 
before the city council about why it is important for the city to ensure a 
transparent, public process when deciding whether or not to approve projects that have such wide-ranging impacts as water bottling plants. 
 
"The proposed Nestle bottling plant has brought to light many problems with the current process for opening beverage bottling plants in the city. This needs to change immediately," says Kristie Harris of Save Our Water. "The zoning codes under which the Nestle plant would be operating were written in 1956 or earlier. Sacramento needs to deal with 21st century environmental concerns. 
 
The Nestle plant, slated to open in January, would have access to unlimited 
amounts of the city's municipal water – 30 million gallons or more – and would 
be among the city's top 10 water users. 
 
"As a city we need to change how we allocate our water. Right now we have a system where residents are forced to conserve, but large corporate waterusers can use as much water as they like. Companies like Nestle have unlimited access to our water and can sell it for 10,000 times what they pay for it," says Evan Tucker, from Save Our Water. "This is unacceptable, and completely unfair for the residents of this city." 
 
The Nestle plant recently came under fire from the city itself, which issued a 
stop work order Monday, so that the city could investigate whether or not work was being done on the plant without proper approval from the city. This calls into question recent claims made by Nestle waters about its respect for public process and their adamant insistence that they have followed city codes and rules. It is also a clear example of why Save Our Water has been concerned about the plant since finding out about it. 
 
"The lack of transparency and the unexamined environmental impacts of the Nestle project make it clear that we need a discretionary process for water bottling in the city. We need a public process that informs and involves the citizens of Sacramento and requires environment review," says Jenny Esquivel, from Save Our Water. "If we can't trust Nestle to file the proper permits, how can we trust them to be honest with us about more difficult topics – such as air quality, plastic pollution from water bottles, and other environmental impacts."