Massive-scale water bottlers, in my judgement, are on the wrong side of history.

Walter H. Baily,   Peasefield Tree Farm, Parsonsfield, Maine
September 29, 2008

At a time …

• when planners and governmental agencies in Maine are removing dams to give fish the opportunity, even the “right,” to swim upstream and spawn as they did decades ago;

• when increasing amounts of land - coastal, inland and even islands - are being placed in permanent conservation easements;

• when new state and town controls are established to protect wetlands, especially vernal pools;

• when state laws now prohibit some types of forest clear-cutting;

• when Maine rivers are being cleansed from endless years of indiscriminate pollution;

• when New England states are suing both states and polluting industries in the Midwest to improve air quality in the east;

• when specific distance limits are placed on timber removals adjacent to waterways and wetlands;

• when funds are sent by private organizations to protect huge areas in Central and South America so that numerous species of birds and butterflies will have winter homes;

• when large “water potholes”  and wide open water areas in the Midwest are being protected for the annual migration of water birds;

• when scientists are increasingly concerned over the extent of global warming and its effect upon water reserves, especially during periods of drought;

• when portions of ocean coastal areas are fenced off to protect hatchling turtles and small coastal birds that can survive only when using the beaches and shallow ocean waters;

• when ships in the coastal waters of Maine are required to reduce speeds in certain seasons to protect migrating whales; and finally,

• when the catches of ground fish and lobsters are restricted before there is total species collapse,

    … massive water extractors are increasingly acting in the opposite direction.

 
While all these protective, healing, species-rebuilding, air, water, and land-conservation measures are underway, massive scale water extractors are doing exactly the opposite by removing vast and increasingly larger amounts of groundwater and shipping it to other regions, thereby disrupting the entire hydrologic cycle in ways that may not guarantee the long-term protection of the region’s water resources. This endless water removal may become a serious and irreversible deficit for ponds, lakes, streams vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as the soils of agricultural and forested lands, not to mention the eventual consequences for people and communities.  We may never grasp the full consequence of this immense hydrologic alteration until it is too late to correct the problems. Ground water removal on this scale has never before happened in Maine; there is no history in this region of the potential problems to be faced.

Two examples of water misuse are well-known to us. The first is that governments and communities in the Western part of the United States have been indifferent and negligent, almost without exception, to the excessive removal and diversion of immense quantities of water, removing even "ancient" water that - geologists tell us - once removed from deep in the earth, can virtually never be replaced in those crevasses and cavities that have taken millions of years to develop. Many Western states are and will be in a constant state of crisis over water control, use, cost, protection and distribution. Can we learn from the errors of the West?

The second increasingly well-known example of water misuse is that massive water extractors have made it clear that they want all the water they can acquire wherever they can obtain it; any negative consequences to the environment or to people appear secondary to their values and direction. Beyond the removal of groundwater, the emergence of global warming, a change heretofore never faced nor understood, may further impair society’s ability to manage this combination of groundwater alteration and unpredictable climatic change.

Massive water extractors, in producing their primary product - bottled water – remove substantial amounts of water for container production and for cleaning and maintenance purposes.  In addition, petroleum is needed to construct the containers.  The distribution of water bottles transfers costs to Maine citizens related to road noise, air quality reduction from diesel fumes as well as long term costs of road maintenance.  The product sold – water – is not a new product, but is the packaging of the most basic of elements in the universe.

It is my belief that the extractors are out of step with the values of the majority of citizens - especially in Maine - values that proclaim that the earth, the water and the entire environment in which we live and survive must be restored and protected. The positive direction of the vast majority of citizens in this state and the endless number of organizations, both public and private, that financially support and actively engage in efforts for the care, restoration and continued protection of our water, our wildlife and our vast natural resources are unequivocal evidence that the massive scale water extractors are on the wrong side of history.