Nestlé Rankles Michigan Environmentalists With Expansion Plan

MICHIGAN — Food and beverage behemoth Nestlé wants to increase its withdrawal of Michigan groundwater by more than two and a half times under a $36 million expansion at its Ice Mountain bottling operation in Stanwood, Michigan, despite an accord reached with environmentalists seven years ago that is supposed to limit how much water can be siphoned from the aquifer.

A critical issue in Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation’s years-long court battle with Nestlé was the privatization of a critical resource and its diversion from watersheds that feed the Great Lakes. The nonprofit spent about $1 million in donated funds to fight Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, in a David-vs.-Goliath-sized fight.

It didn’t win outright, but did win a major concession: Nestlé agreed to limit withdrawal from its Stanwood wells to an average of 218 gallons per minute, or about 313,000 gallons per day, and also to abide by seasonal restrictions in the spring and summer.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is recommending approval, even though Nestlé’s plan didn’t pass last December under the agency’s standard of measure — the Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool, an interactive, online evaluation of proposed water withdrawals that uses comparative data and modeling to project anticipated effects on fish and stream flows.

Jim Milne, the shorelines unit chief in the DEQ’s Water Resources Division, told the Detroit Free Press that when that happens, state rules allow a site-specific review by DEQ staff. That review concluded increased pumping is unlikely to hurt fish in the Chippewa Creek watershed, a tributary to the Muskegon River, or decrease stream flows to the point that natural resources are affected.

Site-specific reviews aren’t unusual, Milne said. In the year that ended in July 2016, the DEQ authorized 123 requests to withdraw water that had been rejected in the computer modeling. In this one, Nestlé and the DEQ say the environmental review shows the aquifer can handle a 167 percent increase in the withdrawal of groundwater.

Nestlé’s “Personal Corporate Utility”

Environmentalists want an independent study.

“It needs to be studied by all the best environmentalists, hydrologists and people acquainted with the science of where this water is actually coming from,” Jeff Ostahowski, vice president of the nonprofit Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, told MLive.com “There are many different hydrologists who can look at the same data and come up with different conclusions.”

State Rep. Jeff Irwin, a Democrat from Ann Arbor who disputes the environmental findings, told the Free Press it is troubling that “Nestlé is essentially appropriating what is a common good for their personal corporate utility.”

And the company is doing it for almost nothing. Because Nestlé owns the land, it can withdraw groundwater from the aquifer below it at no cost beyond the $200 annual paperwork fee.

Added Ostahowski: “Michigan citizens need to understand that part of the legacy we have is the unusual amount of fresh water we have. It's not a given that it's going to be around forever. With a company like Nestlé, it appears there is no end to what they think they can sell.”

Nestlé Waters North America hopes to add two water-bottling lines, one that would become operational next spring and the other by 2018. Nestlé says it needs to expand production to meet increased demand for its products, but the expansion would take withdrawal of groundwater to the 2001 rate of 400 gallons per minute that prompted the lawsuit that wasn’t settled until 2009.

“I'm not sure if there is a reasonable amount of water that should be allowed to be taken from an aquifer,” Ostahowski told the Free Press. "But 400 gallons per minute seems more than a bit too much.”

Christopher Riek, a spokesman for Nestlé Waters North America, told the Free Press water for the Ice Mountain brand comes “from diverse sources that we manage in a sustainable manner.”

Comment Period Extended

Critics of the expansion say the DEQ provided inadequate notice for public comments, which closed on Nov. 3.

Jim Olson, an environmental lawyer and founder and president of For Love of Water, or FLOW, an environmental nonprofit, told the Free Press the state’s “handling of the Nestlé application is as lax as the handling of the Flint water crisis.”

“Nothing has changed," Olson said. "Rights to public notice, public information, hearings and public participation in government decisions over water and quality of life, health — even our economy — have been diminished to the point of absurdity. MDEQ didn’t even post the underlying documents to the application summary online for interested people to review before public comment, and the notice was so hidden and late in the game that no meaningful comments can be made by Nov. 3."

Ostahowski agreed that MDEQ officials “were trying to slip it through.”

“It's disappointing but not uncommon,” he told the Free Press.

In the face of such criticism, the DEQ has agreed to extend public comment for another 30 days and is making the documents supporting the approval of the Nestlé application public. A public hearing will also be held at a place and date to be determined.

Written comments on Nestlé's proposed increased water withdrawals may be submitted until Dec. 3 to the DEQ via e-mail at deq-eh@michigan.gov or mailed to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, P.O. Box 30241, Lansing, Mich., 48909-7741.

Photo by Steven Depolo via Flickr Commons