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NY Times Op-Ed, Sept. 16, 2019
Bottled Water Is Sucking Florida Dry
By Michael Sainato and Chelsea Skojec
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has the largest concentration of freshwater
springs in the world, but they are being devastated by increasing
pollution and drastic declines in water flow. Some springs have dried up
from overextraction; others have shown signs of saltwater intrusion and
harmful algae blooms.
At least 60 springs discharge from the Floridan aquifer into the Santa
Fe River, which runs 75 miles through north-central Florida. This
aquifer is the primary source of drinking water in the state. The state
and local governments have continued to issue water bottling extraction
permits that prevent the aquifer from recharging.
The answer to this problem is simple: No more extraction permits should
be granted, and existing permits should be reduced with the goal of
eliminating bottled water production entirely in Florida. At the very
least, corporations should be taxed for the water they now extract free
of charge. That revenue can be used to pay for water infrastructure
projects.
In the next few months, Nestlé is set to renew its permit at Ginnie
Springs, one of the most popular recreational attractions along the
Santa Fe River. The permit allows Nestlé to take one million gallons per
day at no cost, with just a one-time $115 application fee.
“When the bottling companies come in, they’re taking the water away and
we get no benefit,” said Michael Roth, president of Our Santa Fe River,
an environmental nonprofit.
While other large water bottling companies purchase water directly from
municipal water sources in Florida, Nestlé, the largest bottled water
company in the world with 48 brands in its portfolio, takes water
directly from the source. Nestlé’s free water extraction has incited
community pushback in San Bernardino, Calif., where the company gets
water for its Arrowhead brand from a national forest struggling with
significant drought, and in Osceola County, Mich., where residents are
fighting against the company in court to prevent surges in water
extraction from local resources.
The Florida Springs Institute in August reported that groundwater
extractions need to be reduced by 50 percent or more in North Florida to
restore average spring flows to 95 percent of their previous levels.
From 1950 to 2010, average spring flows in Florida declined by 32
percent as groundwater use increased by 400 percent.
“There is no more water to give out from the Santa Fe River,” said
Robert Knight, an environmental scientist and the executive director of
the Florida Springs Institute. “The aquifer levels are coming down about
an inch per year on average. Every year the aquifer level drops there is
less pressure and flow at the springs.”
Dr. Knight noted that average flow in the Santa Fe River has declined 30
percent to 40 percent. The Florida Springs Institute rates Ginnie
Springs’s ecological health a D-plus.
He cited another Nestlé water bottling operation in Florida, at Madison
Blue Spring, where declining spring flows worsen periodic backflows into
the springs from the Withlacoochee River it feeds into, contaminating
the aquifer. Untreated wastewater discharged into the river upstream in
Georgia has made Madison Blue Springs frequently unsuitable for water
bottling. The water at Ginnie Springs suffers from nitrate pollution
from wastewater, pesticide and fertilizer runoff, which can cause algal
blooms and hurt human health.
Nestlé has incensed other communities in the United States. In Michigan,
the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the
grass-roots nonprofit organization Michigan Citizens for Water
Conservation filed an appeal of a decision to allow Nestlé to increase
water pumping from 250 gallons per minute to to 400 gallons per minute
from a spring aquifer in Osceola County.
In April 2018, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved
Nestlé’s application to increase water extraction to 400 gallons per
minute. Nestlé pays a $200 annual administrative fee to extract millions
of gallons of water from Michigan every year. Residents of Flint have
noted that while Nestlé pays practically nothing for water, they are
faced with high bills for poisoned water and have to rely on purchased
bottled water.
Osceola Township, the site of Nestlé’s well, is also appealing a ruling
that allows Nestlé to build a booster pump and extract more water.
“This is a poor, rural township. Nestlé goes to towns like these with
economic promises of development of jobs, and gives nothing back,” said
Peggy Case, president of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation.
“Other bottled water companies tend to purchase their water from
municipal water systems. They’re not drawing it from springs that are
part of the public commons.”
Her group has fought Nestlé since it began water bottling operations in
Michigan in 2000. In 2009, the group won a settlement to reduce Nestlé’s
water pumping by nearly half at its operation in Mecosta, about 25 miles
south of Osceola Township.
In California, environmental groups are also battling Nestlé’s water
bottle operation in the San Bernardino National Forest, an area
suffering from drought.
“All the climate change modeling that has been done suggests Southern
California mountains are going to get drier and hotter,” said Ileene
Anderson, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The United States Forest Service is monitoring Nestlé’s water extraction
to determine the effect on surface water flows. Nestlé reported pumping
45 million gallons of water from forest springs in 2018, for which it
paid nothing more than an initial $2,000 federal permit fee. The
California Water Resources Control Board is investigating whether Nestlé
has taken more water from the springs than authorized.
For residents near Ginnie Springs, Fla., where Nestlé is set to expand
its bottled water operation, the town frequently issues boil-water
advisories and Florida taxpayers spend millions of dollars annually on
aquifer recharge programs. Florida should prioritize providing safe
drinking water for its residents, rather than bottling that water to
resell elsewhere.
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