"Battling Over Bottled Water" Please respond to the following:

• Read Case 3.2: Battling Over Bottled Water, located here or on page 109 in your textbook. Nestlé holds a 99-year lease for the land that the Sanctuary Spring sits on. While lease-holders are generally understood to be able to make full use of their land, when public resources are involved, they are limited to “reasonable uses.” Review the case study and formulate an argument either supporting or challenging this distinction. Support your reasoning by addressing key ways in which benefits and burdens are being distributed between Nestlé and the community in this case.

Case 3.2:

Water is the lifeblood of the earth, but by2025, according to the U.N., two-thirds of the world’s populationcould face chronic shortages of water. In fact, somecountries are already importing huge supertankers of freshwaterfrom other countries. But one place that’s definitely notshort of water is the state of Michigan, which has 11,000lakes and is surrounded by Lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior,and Erie. So it came as a surprise to some that the Nestlécompany’s new Ice Mountain bottled-water plant in MecostaCounty, Michigan, dredged up so much controversy when itbegan pumping water from a local spring.80Nestlé’s willingness to invest $100 million to build a new410,000-square-foot bottling plant in Mecosta reflects thefact that bottled water is big business, with annual sales of $6billion (up 35 percent since 1997). Many county residents, infact, are thrilled about Nestlé’s being there. The Ice Mountainplant employs about a hundred people at $12 to $23 perhour, significantly more than many local jobs pay. And thecompany shells out hundreds of thousands of dollars in localtaxes. Township supervisor Maxine McClellan says, “This isprobably the best project we’ve ever brought into MecostaCounty.” She adds that she wants “a diversified economywhere our kids don’t have to move away to find jobs.”The problem, as some local residents see it, is thatNestlé has also built a 12-mile stainless steel pipeline fromthe plant to Sanctuary Spring, which sits on an 850-acreprivate deer-hunting ranch and is part of the headwaters ofthe Little Muskegon River, which flows into the Muskegonand then into Lake Michigan. The company started pumping130 gallons of water every minute from the spring, withplans to increase that to 400 gallons per minute, or about262 million gallons a year. But whose water is Nestlépumping? That’s the question being asked by MichiganCitizens for Water Conservation (MCWC), a local Mecostagroup that has filed suit contesting Nestlé’s right to thespring’s waters. Although the company has a ninety-nineyearlease on the land, MCWC contends that the water itselfis a public resource. As Jim Olson, MCWC’s lawyer, explainsit, under the doctrine of “reasonable use” the owners of astream can use its water for drinking, boating, swimming,or anything else “as long as it’s in connection with theirland.” But, he argues, “this does not include the right toCASE 3.2Battling over Bottled Water43075_ch03_ptg01_hr_080-113.indd 109 8/13/12 1:05 PM110 part one moral philosophy and businesstransport water to some distant land for [some other] use.We’re arguing that the same is true with groundwater—you can’t sever it from the estate.”Michigan State Senator Ken Sikkema, who chaired a taskforce on Michigan water issues, rejects that argument: “Afarmer pumps water out of the ground, waters potatoes, andsends the potatoes to Illinois—there’s no real difference. Thewater in those potatoes is gone.” This reasoning hasn’tassuaged the fears of three American Indian tribes who havejoined the fray. Citing an 1836 treaty that protects their fishingand hunting rights in the Great Lakes region, they havebrought a federal lawsuit against Nestlé and the state ofMichigan to stop what they see as a massive water grab. “Ourfear,” says a spokesperson for the Little Traverse Bay Bandsof Odawa Indians, “is that the export could significantly andpermanently damage the fishery.”However, David K. Ladd, head of the Office of GreatLakes, argues that bottled water is a special case. Legally, hecontends, it’s a “food,” regulated by the Food and DrugAdministration. “There’s no difference between Perrier bottlingwater, Gerber making baby food, or Miller brewing beer.When you incorporate water from the basin into a product,it’s no longer water per se.” And Brendan O’Rourke, an IceMountain plant manager, adds that the 262 million gallons itwants to pump are less than 1 percent of the annual rechargerate of the local watershed, equivalent to just 14 minutes ofevaporation from the surface of Lake Michigan.For their part, scientists opposed to the project argue thatNestlé’s pumping has already lowered the local water tableand that northern pike are having trouble spawning in astream fed by Sanctuary Spring. Jim Olson argues that theIce Mountain plant should reduce its water consumption to100 gallons per minute or less, not increase it to 400 gallons.“Every gallon removed is needed for the stream to sustainitself,” he states. “The right to withdraw groundwater does notinclude the right to diminish . . . existing or future uses.”To the surprise of many, Michigan state court judgeLawrence Root bought that argument and upheld the MCWC’slawsuit. Ruling that the environment is at risk no matter howmuch water Nestlé draws out, he ordered the pumps turnedoff. Two years later, an appellate court reversed Judge Root’sdecision, and MCWC and Nestlé subsequently entered anagreement limiting Nestlé’s withdrawals from SanctuarySpring to 250 gallons per minute—although there has beensome legal skirmishing between the two antagonists sincethen. In the meantime, however, the political tide has turnedagainst Nestlé. Small towns in Maine and California haveopposed its building new bottled water plants in their jurisdictions;Congress has held hearings into the diversion ofgroundwater by bottled water companies and other businesses;and Michigan has passed legislation that, amongother things, makes it virtually impossible for operations suchas the Ice Mountain plant to remove more than 100,000 gallonsof groundwater per day.