Bottled water has become such a huge profitable business the last few years that even the Nestles Corporation has jumped on board to participate in the latest moneymaker. Nestles has their own waterfinder and negotiator who scours around the country looking for huge qualities of water. Nestles found a tiny town called Mc Cloud located near Mt. Shasta, California. Mc Cloud was a town that relied on timber for its existence and after the timber market busted in 2003 the town had an unemployment rate of over 14%, and was in dire straits.
Unbeknown to the people of Mc Cloud that their pure glacier fed water from Mt. Shasta was a pot of gold, they became the target of greedy and corrupt Nestles Corporation, Nestles knew that the tiny town was broke and would do just about anything to survive. This is where the high dollar lawyers from Nestles come into the picture.
Nestles took two district board members and the city manager to its water plants near Palm Springs, the Mc Cloud representatives were very impressed with the plants, the employees were given nice break rooms and just about anything they wanted, Nestles promised jobs and on going revenues for the town of Mc Cloud, the representatives from Mc Cloud were highly impressed. Like many other towns and counties across the nation the representatives signed a contract with nestles before bringing it before the rest of the citizens.
A local business owner was concerned with the way the board handled the affair and decided to take a look at the hurried through contract, he was horrified at what he read. Nestles had been granted 100 years worth of water rights which were nearly exclusive, the contract had been written up by nestles lawyers, there was no consideration for any one else that depended on the water shed or for the local citizens.
The board members did not take in to consideration the cost for the town, such as the plants wastewater the huge influx of heavy traffic from the trucks coming and going from the plant plus many others, the board neglected to investigate other towns and their contracts that Nestles had made, if they had they would have found out that Nestles failed to fulfill their contracts, over jobs and revenues to the communities. In fact findings were that the costs to the communities were far greater than the benefits.
The contract gave Nestles priority over the townspeople for water, in other words nestles got the water first and the towns people second. Nestles will own the water but the town of mc Cloud will have to maintain all infrastructure and the springs itself.
Nestles will pay less for water than the locals, the jobs will only be part-time and will not pay a living wage, there will be no payment increases for the next 100 years, the aquifer down stream will be affected by a reduction in its levels the fisheries were not taken in affect. Nestles will have exclusive water rights in Mc Cloud other businesses that require water for their products will not be able to operate in Mc Cloud.
Nestles will take 1,250 gallons of water per minute or 520 million gallon of water per year, the size of the facility is 1 million sq feet or for you Wal- Mart shoppers 5 Wal- Mart super stores. The board members of Mc Cloud did not even put a limit on the amount of water that Nestles could take, so that means that this facility could and will possibly be even larger.
The tiny town of Mc Cloud will receive about $350,000.00 per year from Nestles. This money will not come close in covering the cost to the community. The Mc Cloud board sold their water to Nestles for $26.40 per acre ft. For an example, the difference in the value of water and a decent contract where as: Twinsburg Ohio sold its water for $107,5312.00 per acre ft. now who do you think got took by this greedy corporation with its savvy lawyers? Nestles cost
For the water and final bottled water is 1/64 of a cent and will sell the water for $5-10 per gallon! That is more profit than what the pharmaceuticals make in this country.
Most likely there will be lawsuits filed against Nestlé's over their corporate assault on this community and the environment. Hopefully the courts will side with the townspeople, and the environmentalists, safe guarding the way of life of this community and safe guarding California, and Oregon rivers, and the aquatic life, including the flora and fauna that depend on the waters from Mt. Shasta.
It is truly a despicable act that Nestles is attempting to pull off.  Nestles is just one of many huge corporations that come into small poor economic depressed communities with a promise of economic stimulus and grandeur, which proves to be quit the opposite.  In my opinion, there should be stringent laws written protecting small communities from predatory corporations like nestles. Nestles and other corporations will claim what they are doing is nothing more than good business practices. (Or that this board should have been more business savvy or not quit as trusting) I would beg to differ with their claims; I would call it rape and pillage of people, communities and the environment. These companies need to be leashed in; I have no problem with fair contracts or fair business practices but what Nestles did and what other corporations in this country are allowed to do, to small towns like Mc Cloud is criminal.
I am personally offended by the way Nestles took advantage of this town. I am also offended by the way that other corporations and Nestles subsidiaries take advantage of similar towns all across America.   I plan to boycott all of Nestles products from now on, until they start doing business in an ethical manner. There is a World Wide Assault on aquifers by huge corporations, and this needs to stop.