BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

California has ordered the company that owns Arrowhead bottled water to stop using some of the natural springs it has utilized for more than a century, following a years-long campaign by environmentalists to stop the operation.

Regulators on Tuesday voted to significantly reduce how much water BlueTriton – the owner of the Arrowhead brand – can take from public lands in the San Bernardino mountains. The ruling is a victory for community groups who have said for years that the bottled water firm has drained an important creek that serves as a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.

Arrowhead bottled water traces its roots to a hotel at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains that first opened in 1885 and began selling bottled spring water from its basement in 1906. But environmental and community groups say the company has never had permission to take water from the springs in the San Bernardino national forest.

The state water resources control board agreed that BlueTriton does not have permission to use the water and ordered the company to stop. The order does not ban the company from taking any water from the mountain, but it significantly reduces how much it can take.

  • BeautifulMind ♾️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    106·
    1 year ago

    It’s wild to me that public resources like water are given, not sold, to corporations like Nestle- who then go on to lobby for less public spending on water systems, and who mass-produce those shitty bottles that end up everywhere.

    Charge them royalties for taking water from springs, make it cheaper for nestle to buy water from a utility.

    • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.eeEnglish
      46·
      1 year ago

      Charge them an extremely high plastic tax that makes it an unviable business model too. Suddenly they’ll find alternatives real quick!

      • Patches@sh.itjust.works
        21·
        1 year ago

        Even if they did - they’re still destroying the water table in your local environment. Then there’s the climate disaster of transporting water thousands of miles for… What?

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
      21·
      1 year ago

      That’s what I was searching for in the article, how much this company has paid for 100 years worth of water. It’s insane that they don’t pay at all.