Take Action
Help us pass a moratorium on bottling plants in Sacramento
Click here to download petitions. Gather signatures from your friends, family, co-workers. Or take the petitions to public events – such as Second Saturday – and gather signatures there as well. Once your petitions are complete, send them back to us at: Save Our Water, PO Box 163812, Sacramento, CA 95816-9812.
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Help spread the word!
Distribute fliers asking people to call KJ and tell him to do the right thing – to not sell off unlimited amounts of our water for pennies in the middle of a drought.
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Tell Kevin Johnson, “Nestle Can’t Have Our Water”
In a July 26 press release with the Sacramento Area Trade and Commerce Organization, Mayor Kevin Johnson trumpeted Nestle Waters’ plans to build its latest water bottling plant in Sacramento. Johnson said, “During these tough economic times, this company will not only bring jobs to the city, but it is also nice to have a reaffirmation that many firms still see Sacramento as such a desirable location.” What he didn’t mention is that California is in the 3rd year of a drought, and Nestle will have unlimited access to our water supply – with no public meetings and no environmental review.
Kevin Johnson’s remarks about Nestle are in stark contrast to statements he made to the Sacramento Bee in an article on August 9th, in which he was commenting on the rising water use in Sacramento. The article reads,
Mayor Kevin Johnson called The Bee’s findings “outrageous.”
“We’re going to have to learn to use water smarter, which is a new way of thinking in our city where residents have tapped into two major rivers for generations.” he said. “We need to light a fire under the city’s efforts to save water so we can be a shining example of how to use water more efficiently instead of being a showcase of waste and inefficiency.”
Johnson pledged to speed up efforts to put in place rigorous conservation measures at all city properties.
Tell Mayor Johnson to do the right thing and not sell off unlimited amounts of our water for pennies in the middle of a drought. This would directly contradict his mission to conserve Sacramento’s water.
Write mayor@cityofsacramento.org or call (916) 808-5300 (daytime only).
For more info, see this article or contact saveourwater@ymail.com .
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Nestle’s Good Neighbor Policy
1. Open Communication
Has Nestle asked you how you feel about the new bottling plant? Despite repeated phone calls to various Nestle representatives, no one has been able to provide us with any answers to very basic questions about the bottling plant. Nestle has provided the citizens of Sacramento with no avenue for public input. In fact, Nestle is notorious for negotiating backroom deals and shutting out the very communities it claims to help.
2. Environmental Excellence
Bottled water production is inherently environmentally destructive. The production of millions of plastic bottles, only 13% of which ever get recycled, requires hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil. Trucking water to and from the plant requires the use of heavy-polluting diesel trucks.
3. Responsible Spring Water Resource Management
Pumping millions of gallons of water from local springs–water which should go to local watersheds for use by the plants and animals (including humans) that live there–to sell back to people for 1000 times what Nestle paid for it is not responsible. An independent environmental review of Nestle’s proposed project m McCloud found that the deal would reduce flows to various rivers, streams and creeks in the watershed; it would put fisheries at risk.
4. Water Resource Relations
Nestle has thus far refused to disclose to anyone where the “private springs” they will be using for their Sacramento plant are located. This has made any evaluation of the potential impact their pumping will have on the springs and surrounding communities completely impossible. If Nestle cared about water resource relations, they would be open and honest with people about how their plant will affect those very water resources
5. Sustainable Land Use
How is sucking the water out of a piece of land sustainable?
6. Traffic Mitigation
Heavy traffic caused by diesel trucks transporting bottled water to and from a plant that will be in operation 24 hours-a-day is bound to have negative impacts on traffic flow and isn’t exactly mitigating traffic problems. The traffic problems caused by these trucks is perhaps the least offensive aspect of the transport process, however. In a letter from the Attorney General’s office regarding the proposed plant m McCloud, CA, the AG chastised Nestle for failing to address the global warming impacts of the carbon dioxide and diesel soot the trucks would release into the environment.
7. Exemplary Employee Practices
Based on what has happened in other communities, the top-paying jobs at the Nestle site will go to people brought in from outside Sacramento.
8. Water Education
Maybe they could educate us about where the “private springs’* are and why they need unlimited access to our municipal water.
9. Emergency Relief
Can we get emergency relief from a corporate water thief?
10. Giving Back
Maybe rather than giving back. Nestle should just not take in the first place.
Nestle plans to build a bottling plant in Sacramento, to pump unlimited amounts of our water, without any public meetings or environmental review.
If you have questions or want to let Nestle know how you feel about your water being plundered you can call factory manager Chris Kemp at (682) 472-3040.