March 15 The Palm Beach Post ran an article on the front page of their Sunday Business Section about a situation in High Springs. A family that owns land with springs on it are pumping and selling water to Nestlé. They even have a pipeline straight to the Nestlé plant.
The Post pointed out that the issue became heated when the family wanted to more than quadruple the pumping from 300,000 gallons to 1,000,000 per day, increasing their financial gains well into the millions. Nestlé would produce over 8 million plastic bottles of water per day paying pennies and making really obscene profits.
Who is responsible for water in our government? Florida Statute 373 says: Department of Environmental Protection has primary responsibility for water quality; Water Management Districts have primary responsibility for water quantity; the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has primary responsibility for the development and implementation of agricultural best management practices and Local Governments have primary responsibility for providing domestic wastewater collection and treatment services and storm water management.
Suwannee River Water Management District denied the family’s request. This was the first complete denial of a permit in over four decades. Neither Nestlé nor the family was happy. The final vote was delayed indefinitely as they petitioned for a formal hearing. This looks like the parties may be heading to the courtroom.
Who owns the water? Who has final say over this precious resource? What set of laws or rules govern? How can the land owner pump and sell the aquifer to a corporation? Where is the greater good? What is right for the people and the future generations who will need the water?
For me the answer rests in providing and preserving these resources for as many people as possible for as long as possible. It is not about property rights or land rights and it is all about doing the right thing. Water and air are essential to every living thing’s existence. How can a small group or an individual claim ownership?
Nestlé’s claim is spring water makes their water products better than their competition that generally uses tap water in their product. The difference between spring and tap water is the trace minerals. The other difference is marketing, advertising and consumer perceptions. Nestlé has been running TV ads showing a woman in a bottling plant who says how great it is to have a job and what a great product they produce. The intent of this propaganda messaging is to influence public opinion to Nestlé’s side and to sell water bottles.
Florida Aquifer is big stretching 100,000 square miles and crossing state boundaries. However, it has these dimensions holding capacity, recharge and drawdown. Of these only drawdown rate can be controlled by man. If not monitored and managed and if there are no interstate agreements, we will have declining water reserves and battles like the one with Georgia over the Flint River and water release into the Apalachicola River.
The Florida Aquifer needs to be a top priority of every county legislative committee. Unfortunately water has always been a political football and a prime topic for rhetoric and one-sided propaganda. Our state and federal government need to negotiate water sharing agreements, our state and county governments need to coordinate and work on our own water management issues and people who think they own the aquifer need to be less greedy.
Sincerely,
Phil Calandra