August 28, 2009
Nestle to start pumping water from the Arkansas river
This month in Salida, Colorado, beverage company Nestle Waters won rights to pump spring water from two sites along the Arkansas River.
The company, who owns 50 other spring sites around the country, has been negotiating for access to the springs since early 2009, facing strong opposition from some Salida residents. A proposed 65 million gallons/year will be extracted by Nestle for their Arrowhead bottled water brand.
Among the concerns, is the effect of the extraction on the river's flow, also the depletion of the aquifer that feeds the springs. Residents also worry that the 25 trucks per day Nestle will use to bring the water to their Denver processing plant will cause major traffic problems, leading to further development in the area. Salida resident Michelle Riggio has strong doubts about the "unsustainable practice of putting water in bottles and trucking it all over the place", and she does have a point. The Container Recycling Institute claims 17 million barrels of oil are used in a year to make plastic water bottles, only 23% of which get recycled.
However, in one Land Letter report, Nestle says that it will pump less than 10% of the spring's available water, also that the aquifer will be fully replenished by snow melt and precipitation, leaving the river's flow unaffected. Along with the provision of $80,000 in annual taxes to the county, the project will also benefit wildlife by limiting human use of the land and removing existing buildings in order to restore it to a more natural state. Nestle also plans to lease water from Aurora's Twin Lakes Reservoir to replace water taken from the springs.
In an interview with the LA times, Salida rancher Frank McMurry says, "The old-timers, and there's not many of us left, you never see them protesting. But by God, the longhairs and the ponytails come out of the woodwork, just to protest something." He sold his land to Nestle in 2007 for $860,000. He is 70 years old.
http://www.examiner.com/x-9508-Aspen-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2009m8d28-Nestle-to-start-pumping-water-from-the-Arkansas-river