Washington,
Dec 12, 2007 -
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, held a hearing this afternoon that revealed local communities’ exploitation by the water bottling industry.
“Bottlers are constantly looking for untapped watersheds in relatively undeveloped rural communities,” Kucinich said. “The Food and Drug Administration, which purports to protect water quality, actually incentivizes pumping at the most environmentally damaging sites.”
Witnesses from several states including New Hampshire, California and Michigan provided gripping testimony to illustrate the hardships rural communities have to endure.
Bill McCann, who is on the Board of Directors of Save Our Groundwater in Barrington, NH gave a compelling account of small communities located in Southeastern New Hampshire that were given convoluted answers about the contamination of wetlands.
“Citizens in Southeastern New Hampshire are upset with the State and Federal Government’s utter failure to protection the natural resources of our region,” McCann said.
The hearing revealed that extraction of groundwater can damage wetlands, rivers and other ecologically sensitive and valuable habitats. Another stark example of the exploitation of water resources was from Richard McFarland, who lives at the base of Mt. Shasta in Northern California.
A member of the Board of Directors of the McCloud Watershed Council, McFarland, told the committee how surprised this small community in Northern California was when its Community Services District, voted to approve a contract between the town and Nestle. Nestle is the largest water bottler in North America, controlling 32% of the domestic market.
Another telling story came from Terry Swier, one of the founders and President of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation. She said it has been seven years since the residents of Mecosta County, Michigan, were made aware of Nestle’s plan to pump more than 210 million gallons of spring water per year from a private hunting preserve, divert it through a 12-mile pipeline that crosses streams and wetlands to its plant, bottle it, and then truck it outside the Great Lakes Basin under the brand name Ice Mountain.
“As Nestle moved into Michigan to privatize our water for its own profit, it announced there would be no adverse resource impact to the natural resources,” Swier said.
Kucinich said affected communities have been frustrated by a complex patchwork of laws that they believe do not adequately protect their water supply and the ecological integrity of their own backyard.
“These rural communities disproportionately bear the brunt of the pumping’s environmental impacts. Extraction of groundwater from these sources has a particularly detrimental effect on surface water flows. And that is first link in a chain of negative environmental consequences,” Kucinich said.
Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, said the truth is that bottled water is generally no cleaner, or safer or healthier than tap water.
“We can’t stand by and watch wetlands, which provide free water filtration services and incredibly rich biodiversity be destroyed by bottle water companies,” Kucinich said.
This was the first Congressional hearing to assess the environmental risks of the water bottling industry’s extraction of groundwater. The Domestic Policy Subcommittee plans on holding a follow-up hearing in the coming months. For more information about today’s hearing, go to http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/.
