This time the setting is the San Bernadino National Forest where the U.S. Forest Service has proposed to grant Nestlé a new permit to continue piping water out of the national forest. Three environmental groups are suing the federal government in an attempt to shut down the 4.5-mile pipeline and a petition demanding Nestlé “turn off the spigot” has garnered thousands of signatures and comments.
Nestlé has been piping water from the national forest for decades for its Arrowhead brand, paying a nominal $524 annual fee on a long-expired permit, according to the Desert Sun. Piping water during drought years is a major issue expressed in many of the comments. Permit fees and drought issues aside, environmental impacts are also a concern.
Ileene Anderson and Lisa Belenky of the Center for Biological Diversity said in a 28-page letter that the Forest Service’s “proposal to issue the permit first and undertake the needed studies later, while water extraction continues, is fundamentally flawed and unlawful.”
They said that while the proposal does include environmental studies, the approach is flawed because the agency wouldn’t halt water diversions during the study period – which would allow researchers to observe the differences in the creek between when the water is being diverted and when it isn’t.
Click to read the Desert Sun article.
It’s a familiar battle, one that CalTrout, TU and The McCloud Watershed Council fought in 2003 when Nestlé attempted to bottle water from the McCloud River. The coalition successfully took on the multi-national giant 1) at a grassroots level, 2) on the legal front, 3) with innovative media campaigns (shown here), and 4) through science and monitoring to understand and articulate the potential impacts.
We’ll see how this latest battle turns out.
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.
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