By Brandon Hall
(Email Him At WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com)
A large, foreign corporation has been taking billions of gallons of Michigan water for years and selling it for a considerable profit while paying the state almost nothing.
Nestle, a Switzerland based company, pays the state $200 a year and in return takes hundreds of millions of gallons of our water annually, 3.5 billion gallons between 2005-2015.
According to Garret Ellison of MLive:
"To say that Michigan is an ideal state in which to operate a bottled water factory is something of an understatement.
Nestle Waters North America, the world's largest bottled water company, shipped the first bottle from its Ice Mountain plant in Stanwood in May 2002. Since then, the company has extracted billions of gallons of groundwater from underneath Michigan and has paid next to nothing for it.
Michigan, a water-rich state surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes, charges high-volume, self-supplied water bottlers like Nestle and Absopure only $200 per year in paperwork fees to operate. There's no state tax, license fee or royalty associated with the company's extraction of a precious natural resource.
That has not exactly sat well with many Michiganders after it was revealed this fall that the Department of Environmental Quality was ready to sign off on a 167-percent capacity increase on a high-volume well Nestle owns in Osceola County.
The DEQ has since received about 14,000 comments on the Nestle request. Most of them oppose the increased water extraction and a good portion of the debate has involved talk of ending Nestle's free ride and requiring some compensation -- all against the backdrop of the water crisis in Flint, where Michigan is currently fighting in court against the expense of delivering safe water door-to-door.
"The juxtaposition is pretty stark," said Liz Kirkwood, director of the Traverse City nonprofit environmental advocacy group FLOW (For Love of Water).
"It's ironic that the state of Michigan won't pay for bottled water and 100 miles away they are giving away Pure Michigan water for $200 a year at the wellhead."
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Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.
>>>Email him at WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com
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Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.
>>>Email him at WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com
As I HAVE SAID FOR YEARS NOW MICHIGAN NEEDS TO PROTECT IT'S WATER AND WATER RIGHTS; MORE VALUABLE THAN OIL.
ReplyDeleteNO WATER, NO FOOD,NO FOOD, NOBODY CONTROL WATER, CONTROL PEOPLE. CAN'T DRINK OR SURVIVE ON OIL. MORE NEED TO BE INVESTIGATED ON WATER SHIPMENTS FOR PROFIT AT MICHIGAN'S EXPENSE. (LEGISLATORS SIDE BUSINESS INTERESTS.)
IN OUR AREA THEY HAVE BEEN DOING PROJECTS WHICH SEEM TO DRAIN AND DRY UP NATURAL CREEKS AND PONDS WHICH HAVE BEEN IN EXISTENCE FOR YEARS. WHERE IS THAT WATER GOING?
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