Nestlé granted permission to drink from Michigan wells

DETROIT – While most of the world’s glaciers are shrinking, Nestlé’s Ice Mountain continues to expand. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently granted Nestlé permission to withdraw water from wells and wetlands in Evart, Michigan.

According to The Detroit Free Press, the company will build a pipeline to extract 150 gallons per minute. Ice Mountain currently drinks 280 gallons per minute from their controversial plant in Stanwood. The DEQ claims that the new allowances will not harm the area’s ecosystem. Nestlé spokewoman, Deb Muchmore, points out that the plant plans to use less water than the Gerber baby food plant in Fremont and the 7-Up operation in Holland.

In reference to the heated debate surrounding the bottled water loophole in the Great Lakes Compact, as well as newly passed state legislation to limit withdrawals of water from the Great Lakes basin, DEQ spokesman Bob McCann claims that he understands “the debate about bottled water, but our job is to apply the law.” The law, the DEQ maintains, does not prevent Nestlé from bottling what residents of the area have claimed — in their resistance to the initial Nestlé plant — is historically considered a common resource.

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Source: The Detroit Free Press