SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A sign for the Nestle Water bottling facility is seen in Stanwood, Michigan, January 11, 2018. (Photo: Steven M. Herppich/AFP via Getty Images)
'Victory for the People': Michigan Court Rejects Nestle's Claim That Privatizing Local Town's Water Provides 'Essential Service'
"Allowing a corporation to bottle our water just to sell it back to us is hardly an 'essential service.'"
Dec 04, 2019
Nestle's permit to extract hundreds of gallons of water per minute from a central Michigan town could be at risk following a decision by the state's second-highest court that the multinational company cannot build a pumping station in the town.
A three judge panel for the state appeals court ruled Tuesday that by building a pumping station which does not comply with Osceola Township, Michigan's zoning laws, Nestle would not be providing an "essential public service," regardless of its claims that it would offer a "public water supply" to the town.
The decision regarding Osceola represents a victory for the entire state, tweeted state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, who on Thursday joined two other lawmakers in introducing legislation to protect the state's groundwater from private corporations.
"Allowing a corporation to bottle our water just to sell it back to us is hardly an 'essential service,'" wrote Pohutsky, a Democrat.
The judges handed down the decision two years after Nestle applied to build the pumping station in a children's campground in Osceola in order to extract more water from a nearby wellhead. The company sued the town after officials said the pump would violate zoning laws, and a lower court sided with Nestle in 2017, saying water is an "essential public service."
The appeals court on Tuesday argued that "other than in areas with no other source of water, bottled water is not essential."
Critics said the company's plan was part of its scheme to privatize water supplies across the country. In 2016, Nestle won preliminary approval from the state's environmental department to triple the amount of groundwater it pumps in the state, a year after medical experts first urged residents of Flint to stop drinking tap water after finding elevated lead levels in children's blood.
The court's decision could be appealed to the state Supreme Court, but as The Guardian reported, the ruling "could also lead state environmental regulators to reconsider" the company's water-pumping permits. The permits were issued under the assumption that Nestle would be providing an essential service to Michiganders.
Food and Water Watch's Midwest branch declared the decision a victory.
When introducing water protection legislation on Thursday, state lawmakers implicitly referenced the decision and Nestle's attempt to profit off of the state's water.
"Not only is groundwater essential for the state of Michigan, but we need to protect it and we need to put it in the public trust," said Democratic state Rep. Yousef Rahbi.
Jennifer Schlicht of Clean Water Action's Michigan's office celebrated the appeals court's decision and asked voters to urge their representatives to support the legislation.
"The concept of our water as a public trust is something Michiganders inherently understand, even if they don't know the term itself," tweeted Schlicht.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nestle's permit to extract hundreds of gallons of water per minute from a central Michigan town could be at risk following a decision by the state's second-highest court that the multinational company cannot build a pumping station in the town.
A three judge panel for the state appeals court ruled Tuesday that by building a pumping station which does not comply with Osceola Township, Michigan's zoning laws, Nestle would not be providing an "essential public service," regardless of its claims that it would offer a "public water supply" to the town.
The decision regarding Osceola represents a victory for the entire state, tweeted state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, who on Thursday joined two other lawmakers in introducing legislation to protect the state's groundwater from private corporations.
"Allowing a corporation to bottle our water just to sell it back to us is hardly an 'essential service,'" wrote Pohutsky, a Democrat.
The judges handed down the decision two years after Nestle applied to build the pumping station in a children's campground in Osceola in order to extract more water from a nearby wellhead. The company sued the town after officials said the pump would violate zoning laws, and a lower court sided with Nestle in 2017, saying water is an "essential public service."
The appeals court on Tuesday argued that "other than in areas with no other source of water, bottled water is not essential."
Critics said the company's plan was part of its scheme to privatize water supplies across the country. In 2016, Nestle won preliminary approval from the state's environmental department to triple the amount of groundwater it pumps in the state, a year after medical experts first urged residents of Flint to stop drinking tap water after finding elevated lead levels in children's blood.
The court's decision could be appealed to the state Supreme Court, but as The Guardian reported, the ruling "could also lead state environmental regulators to reconsider" the company's water-pumping permits. The permits were issued under the assumption that Nestle would be providing an essential service to Michiganders.
Food and Water Watch's Midwest branch declared the decision a victory.
When introducing water protection legislation on Thursday, state lawmakers implicitly referenced the decision and Nestle's attempt to profit off of the state's water.
"Not only is groundwater essential for the state of Michigan, but we need to protect it and we need to put it in the public trust," said Democratic state Rep. Yousef Rahbi.
Jennifer Schlicht of Clean Water Action's Michigan's office celebrated the appeals court's decision and asked voters to urge their representatives to support the legislation.
"The concept of our water as a public trust is something Michiganders inherently understand, even if they don't know the term itself," tweeted Schlicht.
Nestle's permit to extract hundreds of gallons of water per minute from a central Michigan town could be at risk following a decision by the state's second-highest court that the multinational company cannot build a pumping station in the town.
A three judge panel for the state appeals court ruled Tuesday that by building a pumping station which does not comply with Osceola Township, Michigan's zoning laws, Nestle would not be providing an "essential public service," regardless of its claims that it would offer a "public water supply" to the town.
The decision regarding Osceola represents a victory for the entire state, tweeted state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, who on Thursday joined two other lawmakers in introducing legislation to protect the state's groundwater from private corporations.
"Allowing a corporation to bottle our water just to sell it back to us is hardly an 'essential service,'" wrote Pohutsky, a Democrat.
The judges handed down the decision two years after Nestle applied to build the pumping station in a children's campground in Osceola in order to extract more water from a nearby wellhead. The company sued the town after officials said the pump would violate zoning laws, and a lower court sided with Nestle in 2017, saying water is an "essential public service."
The appeals court on Tuesday argued that "other than in areas with no other source of water, bottled water is not essential."
Critics said the company's plan was part of its scheme to privatize water supplies across the country. In 2016, Nestle won preliminary approval from the state's environmental department to triple the amount of groundwater it pumps in the state, a year after medical experts first urged residents of Flint to stop drinking tap water after finding elevated lead levels in children's blood.
The court's decision could be appealed to the state Supreme Court, but as The Guardian reported, the ruling "could also lead state environmental regulators to reconsider" the company's water-pumping permits. The permits were issued under the assumption that Nestle would be providing an essential service to Michiganders.
Food and Water Watch's Midwest branch declared the decision a victory.
When introducing water protection legislation on Thursday, state lawmakers implicitly referenced the decision and Nestle's attempt to profit off of the state's water.
"Not only is groundwater essential for the state of Michigan, but we need to protect it and we need to put it in the public trust," said Democratic state Rep. Yousef Rahbi.
Jennifer Schlicht of Clean Water Action's Michigan's office celebrated the appeals court's decision and asked voters to urge their representatives to support the legislation.
"The concept of our water as a public trust is something Michiganders inherently understand, even if they don't know the term itself," tweeted Schlicht.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.