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URGENT ADVISORY: Sacramento City Council tackles Nestle, water issues Tonight

by Dan Bacher
While Sacramento residents are told to conserve water – limiting
lawn watering and washing cars – corporations have virtually unlimited use, and
at reduced rates, charged Save Our Water, opponents of a controversial Nestle
Bottling Plant to be debated at the Sacramento City Council TUESDAY night at 6 p.m.
URGENT NEWS ADVISORY
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009
Contact: Kristie Harris 916/844-8755 or Nancy Price 530/758-0726


Sacramento City Council to discuss controversial
Nestle Bottling Plant Tuesday; at issue is how residents
are told to conserve, and firm has ‘unlimited' use of water

SACRAMENTO – While Sacramento residents are told to conserve water – limiting
lawn watering and washing cars – corporations have virtually unlimited use, and
at reduced rates, charged Save Our Water, opponents of a controversial Nestle
Bottling Plant to be debated at the Sacramento City Council TUESDAY night at 6 p.m.

The Council will meet at City Hall to discuss the creation of a special permit
for new beverage bottling plants and a tiered pricing system for high volume
water users in the city of Sacramento.

Members from Save Our Water and other concerned citizens will be testifying
before the city council about why it is important for the city to ensure a
transparent, public process when deciding whether or not to approve projects
that have such wide-ranging impacts as water bottling plants.

"The proposed Nestle bottling plant has brought to light many problems with the
current process for opening beverage bottling plants in the city. This needs to
change immediately," says Kristie Harris of Save Our Water. "The zoning codes
under which the Nestle plant would be operating were written in 1956 or earlier.
Sacramento needs to deal with 21st century environmental concerns.

The Nestle plant, slated to open in January, would have access to unlimited
amounts of the city's municipal water – 30 million gallons or more – and would
be among the city's top 10 water users.

"As a city we need to change how we allocate our water. Right now we have a
system where residents are forced to conserve, but large corporate water users
can use as much water as they like. Companies like Nestle have unlimited access
to our water and can sell it for 10,000 times what they pay for it," says Evan
Tucker, from Save Our Water. "This is unacceptable, and completely unfair for
the residents of this city."

The Nestle plant recently came under fire from the city itself, which issued a
stop work order Monday, so that the city could investigate whether or not work
was being done on the plant without proper approval from the city. This calls
into question recent claims made by Nestle waters about its respect for public
process and their adamant insistence that they have followed city codes and
rules. It is also a clear example of why Save Our Water has been concerned about
the plant since finding out about it.

"The lack of transparency and the unexamined environmental impacts of the Nestle
project make it clear that we need a discretionary process for water bottling in
the city. We need a public process that informs and involves the citizens of
Sacramento and requires environment review," says Jenny Esquivel, from Save Our
Water. "If we can't trust Nestle to file the proper permits, how can we trust
them to be honest with us about more difficult topics – such as air quality,
plastic pollution from water bottles, and other environmental impacts."

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