Privatization of Water comes to California with a 100-year contract

SFGate.com
reports on water wars for fresh water in California.

In the northeast corner of California, where conservationists are fighting the Nestle Co. over their plans to tap into a source near what is arguably the state's most pristine large river.

Nestle, the country's largest bottled water company, could ultimately extract up to 520 million gallons of water from the McCloud River watershed each year. The McCloud is unique among California's larger rivers in that most of its water derives from springs located near the base of Mount Shasta rather than from rainfall or snowmelt.

Under the plan, the company could also bottle an unlimited amount of groundwater and would maintain rights to a dam on the McCloud River.

Opponents to the project say it could dry up local aquifers and deplete Squaw Valley Creek, a trout stream and the McCloud's major tributary. It has also been contended that Nestle's deal may not be a sound one financially for the town.

Nestle and its supporters counter that the bottling plant, planned for a 250-acre site that once supported the town's main lumber mill, would establish a sustainable industry in the economically depressed area, providing much-needed jobs and tax revenue.

Nestle, which produces several brands of bottled water, including Poland Springs, the nation's No. 1 brand, said the company will monitor the water supply and has plans to prevent shortages in McCloud, an unincorporated town of fewer than 1,400 residents.

And although most of the bottled water will come from excess flows into the town's water system, some opponents worry about the plan to bore into the aquifer to collect even more.

"The problem is that this is a fractured aquifer, with cracks running every which way," said Debra Anderson, chairwoman of the McCloud Watershed Council, a group opposed to the project. "You really don't know what large-scale drilling will do. People around here have sunk their wells too deep and they lost all their water -- it disappeared like it was going down a bathtub drain."

"I'm not anti-Nestle," said Richard McFarland, a local businessman. "I'm pro-McCloud. If Nestle came to the table with a good plan, I'd support it completely. But this isn't it. Environmental risks aside, it doesn't make sense economically. It's a 100-year contract that contains no considerations for inflation or growth in the value of the (water)."

SOURCE: SFGate.com