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posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 18 2020, @07:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the will-you-drink-to-that? dept.

Lawmakers open groundwater fight against bottled water companies:

Washington state, land of sprawling rainforests and glacier-fed rivers, might soon become the first in the nation to ban water bottling companies from tapping spring-fed sources.

The proposal is one of several efforts at the state and local level to fend off the fast-growing bottled water industry and protect local groundwater. Local activists throughout the country say bottling companies are taking their water virtually for free, depleting springs and aquifers, then packaging it in plastic bottles and shipping it elsewhere for sale.

"I was literally beyond shocked," said Washington state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, who sponsored the bill to ban bottling companies from extracting groundwater. It was advanced by a Senate committee last week.

"I was jolted to the core to realize the depth and breadth and magnitude of how they have lawyered up in these small towns to take advantage of water rights," the Democrat said. "The fact that we have incredibly loose, if virtually nonexistent, policy guidelines around this is shocking and a categorical failure."

Elsewhere, lawmakers in Michigan and Maine also have filed bills to restrict the bottling of groundwater or tax the industry. Local ballot measures have passed in Oregon and Montana to restrict the industry, though in Montana, Flathead County's zoning change remains tied up in court.

"The Washington state bill is groundbreaking," said Mary Grant, a water policy specialist with the environmental group Food and Water Watch. "As water scarcity is becoming a deeper crisis, you want to protect your local water supply so it goes for local purposes. (Bottled water) is not an industry that needs to exist."

Though much of the controversy around the bottled water industry has concerned "bottled at the source" spring water sites, nearly two-thirds of the bottled water sold in the United States comes from municipal tap water, according to Food and Water Watch. The Washington state legislation would not keep companies from buying and reselling tap water.

Americans consumed nearly 14 billion gallons of bottled water in 2018, while sales reached $19 billion—more than doubling the industry's size in 2004. The bottled water industry is expected to grow to more than $24 billion in the next three years, according to Beverage Industry magazine.

Industry leaders have opposed sweeping legislation that would cut off resources, pointing out the potential hit to local employment and the importance of bottled water in disaster relief.

"This legislation would prevent any community from having these jobs or having a project in their area," said Brad Boswell, executive director of the Washington Beverage Association, who testified against the bill. "We think these issues are best dealt with on a project-by-project basis."

The International Bottled Water Association defended the track record of its members in an emailed statement. The bill in Washington and other legislation to limit the industry "are based on the false premise that the bottled water industry is harming the environment," wrote Jill Culora, the group's vice president of communications.

"All IBWA members," she wrote, "are good stewards of the environment. When a bottled water company decides to build a plant, it looks for a long-term, sustainable source of water and the ability to protect the land and environment around the source and bottling facility."

Culora did not address specific examples of community claims that bottling companies have damaged their watersheds and aquifers.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:08PM (12 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:08PM (#959659) Journal
    The plastic bottled water industry should be banned. Las Vegas also shouldn't exist. Cities in the middle of deserts is a dumb, energy and resource intensive disaster that can only be made sustainable by repeated bouts of covid-19, because people won't leave voluntarily.
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:17PM (8 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:17PM (#959662) Journal

    Las Vegas gets its energy from the Hoover Dam thing. They also export electricity. ("The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California." [wikipedia.org])

    In 1960 (before I was born) it was said that it would never rain in Las Vegas. (also Maryland Parkway was a dirt road, or so I was told.)

    I remember rain in my childhood.

    By my teens there were sometimes problems with flash flooding.

    I remember the first time I saw snow in Las Vegas. Just little bits that would barely stick to anything. Not what people elsewhere would call "real' snow. But it was amazing nonetheless.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:36PM (#959669)

      It can snow in a desert .. Wild variations of temperature are possible without a large body of water to absorb heat and regulate local heat exchange rates

    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:49PM (6 children)

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:49PM (#959673) Journal
      And yet they had to tunnel under Lake Meade to make a new low-level outlet for when the water levels fall below Hoover Dams ability to generate electricity, because they know it's going to happen. Lake Meade is drying up since the turn of the century, with a few good years but nothing near needed to fill it again.
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      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @10:03PM (5 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @10:03PM (#959681) Journal

        After decades of being away from Las Vegas, I visited it again in about 2010 when my company had its office Christmas party there (instead of Orlando).

        Wow. How different it is. All different casinos. Once you leave the casino areas to where people actually live, it looks like urban decay everywhere. Very different from when I was a kid. School systems seemed to be overflowing with money back then -- but not decades later. I had never heard of or seen a pothole in the road -- until I lived in a different state.

        I would never want to live there after seeing it as an adult.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Tuesday February 18 2020, @10:22PM (4 children)

          by sjames (2882) on Tuesday February 18 2020, @10:22PM (#959690) Journal

          Corporate america took it over from the mob.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @01:46AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @01:46AM (#959740)

            The mob was a better caretaker of the place. They wanted to pass the family business down to their families, so they kept the place up. Corporate America only cares about this quarter.

            • (Score: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:45AM

              by sjames (2882) on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:45AM (#959759) Journal

              In addition, the mob understood that "you don't shit where you eat". If you keep things running well and don't hurt innocents, the police won't be all that interested in looking behind the curtain.

              Also, the mob ran on human decision and so knew how to show mercy. That's why if you lost big, they would give you dinner and a plane ticket home while the corporate casinos just roll you out the door. I wouldn't claim the mob was all sunshine and kittens, but if you didn't mess with them, they were in many ways nicer than the corporates (and in some ways definitely not).

          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:27PM (1 child)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:27PM (#959856) Journal

            Corporate america took it over from the mob.

            That is exactly what happened.

            My first instinct would be to think this is a great thing to have happened.

            But looking at the actual outcome, I have second thoughts.

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
            • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday February 19 2020, @09:03PM

              by sjames (2882) on Wednesday February 19 2020, @09:03PM (#960006) Journal

              My first instinct would be to think this is a great thing to have happened.

              It SHOULD be a good thing. It's very telling that in practice people miss the mob for good reasons.

              It's not just in Vegas. The same applies in New York and New Jersey. The mob is being squeezed out between the Russian gangs and corporate America in part because there are ethical lines the Mob won't cross.

  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday February 18 2020, @10:26PM

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday February 18 2020, @10:26PM (#959691) Journal

    We have Vegas and Hollywood so people don't riot. Such is the price for keeping the peace.

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    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @07:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @07:19AM (#959811)

    You living in a freezing city are wasting more energy for heating than anyone could use supplying themselves with bottled water. Why don't you move to somewhere you don't have to use so many gigajoules to heat your home?

  • (Score: 2) by Common Joe on Wednesday February 19 2020, @10:49AM

    by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday February 19 2020, @10:49AM (#959838) Journal

    Although there are some cities that I question if they should exist or not, we do need plastic bottled water from time to time. The problems in Detroit* or hurricane stricken areas come to mind.

    * The last I heard, Detroit still has contaminated water even all these years later. Now, an argument can be made whether Detroit should be abandoned thus alleviating the problem of bottled water. But, if Detroit is to be abandoned, there are some serious questions like who funds relocation for all the people who are still there? Most of them are very poor. Ultra-capitalism supporters would prefer that the poor simply die there. I can't say I'm a fan of that idea.