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Activists Save Water From Corporate Control in Wells, Maine as Neighbors in Rangeley Lose Out To Extraction Site

Washington, DC—Water activists seized a decisive victory yesterday when trustees of the Kennebunk-Kennebunkport-Wells Water District voted to indefinitely table action on a thirty year agreement with Nestle to allow the company to extract local water for Poland Springs water in Wells, Maine. Nestle announced its plan to forge a contract with the water district last month to take between 250,000 to 500,000 gallons of water a day from the town’s fragile ecosystem. Food & Water Watch allied with Defending Water in Maine and other local organizations to protest the contract and Nestle’s presence in Maine.

“We are thrilled for our friends in Wells and their victory over corporate interests,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “Water should be safe, clean and affordable for all, not a commodity to line corporate pockets or to be taken and peddled as a luxury item. The people of southern May have spoken and what they want is control of their own water, not indentured servitude to the corporate water barons.”

Opposition to Nestle, which already extracts water from eight wells in Maine, is expected to mount, as the corporation has already announced plans to take water from Rangeley, Maine.

"They're pounding on the door of one community after another," observes Emily Posner with the Defending Water in Maine campaign. " We're designating water as a part of the Commons, where everyone has the right to use water and no one has the right to sell it for profit. Maine’s economic development should be controlled by the residents of this great state, not by Nestle."

“We will remain vigilant in our fight to prevent Nestle from taking any more water in Maine,” said Hauter. “Economically vulnerable towns that may be seduced by the lure of new jobs from new extraction sites need to know that these so-called promises are nothing but lies concocted by Nestle to dupe them into handing over their water.”

A recent analysis by Food & Water Watch examines the claims put forth by corporations when they want officials to let them open bottled water facilities in their towns and reveals the truth behind the spin. The Unbottled Truth About Bottled Water finds that:

• In 2006, the nation’s 628 water-bottling plants employed fewer than 15,000 people
• A typical bottled water plant employs 24 workers, between two and 10 of which are local residents
• The average salary for a bottled water worker in 2006 was $41,236, almost $10,000 a year less than the average manufacturing job
• In 2006, bottled water manufacturing had one of the highest rates of workplace injury and illness, with one out of every 11 workers maimed or infirm—a rate 50 percent higher than the broader manufacturing and construction industry.

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer rights organization that challenges the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources. Visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

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