PRESS RELEASE September 12, 2008
Contacts:
Ann Winn-Wentworth (207) 793-2242 (w), 793-2633 (h)
Mary Taylor: mtaylor2@juno.com
POWWR, 185 Hooper Road,
Shapleigh, ME 04076
e-mail: POWWR@live.com website: DefendingWaterInMaine.org/POWWR
Protecting Our Water & Wildlife Resources (POWWR) is a grass-roots, ad hoc, non-profit organization comprised of individuals passionate about keeping their life-sustaining element - WATER - in the hands of the citizens that use it simply to live. One of POWWR's major concerns is related to the extraction of large quantities of water in Southern Maine and how that will effect the wildlife habitat, water quality, and water sustainability for future generations. There is no scientific data to assure us that large-scale extraction is safe for our communities.
Maine is rich in natural resources, however it appears that these resources are threatened. POWWR's work is to increase public awareness of our resources and their value to the citizens of Maine. We are here to say that each individual has POWWR and can affect change.
The Kennebunk/Kennebunkport/Wells Water District did consider allowing Nestlé Waters North America to mine water. With a public outcry from its citizens, and surrounding communities, the Trustees of this Water District tabled the negotiations indefinitely, but the Citizens of this district will be voting in November to "decide whether the town should enact a water extraction moratorium." Now Nestlé, parent company of Poland Springs Bottling Co., has moved on to Shapleigh. Shapleigh is currently contemplating the possibility of allowing Nestlé Waters North America to test for future water mining on town owned land off the Mann Road.
Since 2005, Nestlé has been looking into a water mining operation in the area. In 2006, this worldwide corporation received permission from Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to sink bore wells in the Vernon Walker Wildlife Management Area, and in 2006 Nestlé did sink these wells in Shapleigh, and an uncounted number in Newfield, both in Vernon Walker land. Shapleigh and Newfield share land in the Vernon Walker Wildlife Management Area, the boundary being the Little Ossipee River. The land sits upon a sand and gravel aquifer also shared by both towns. The water of this aquifer is prized by Nestlé for its Poland Spring brand. At a Planning Board Public Hearing, Shapleigh's Environmental Consultant eluded that if springs (water) are so very important to Poland Springs, then they should be more important to Shapleigh residents.
Nestlé's initial interest was to sign a bulk water extraction contract with the State of Maine for water underneath Vernon Walker. When the state offered a price too high for
Nestlé, the corporation literally went across the road where the town of Shapleigh owns property above the coveted sand and gravel aquifer. Now the citizens of Shapleigh must decide whether they want Nestlé in their backyard!
Nestlé is already close to Shapleigh's back yard! In the year 2000 Nestlé opened a bottling plant for Poland Spring brand water in Hollis, Maine, a small rural town approximately 25 miles east northeast of Shapleigh. The Swiss conglomerate, Nestlé, is attempting to acquire water rights all over the country including McCloud, CA, Sterling, MA, Shapleigh, ME, and many other Maine communities. The town of McCloud, California hired a private economic consulting firm to do a comprehensive study on The Potential Economic Effects of the Proposed Water Bottling Facility in McCloud. Nestlé wants to extract water on a large scale as well as implement a bottling facility.
The findings of the economic report include:
"Trends indicate that water will only grow in importance to the areas of economy, and there is considerable uncertainty about the ability of future water supplies to meet demands."
"Nestlé's proposed extraction of water would reduce the availability of water for competing uses - municipal, industrial, agricultural, and environmental . . . ."
Simultaneously, bottled water is being looked at differently. Some are filled with tap water heavily filtered, or have minerals added to enhance flavor, or have added vitamins, or are filtered through reverse osmosis. Most bottles are plastic.
Plastic bottles are causing problems of their own. People are going back to tap water and thermos jugs. What will Nestlé do when their profits start to dwindle and they've already damaged Shapleigh's aquifer, Shapleigh's roads, Shapleigh's environment, Citizen's eardrums, Shapleigh's community!
Now - what about Natural Resources?: Oil, gas, coal, wood, minerals, gems, rocks, sand, soil, and WATER. Did God give us water, the sustenance of life, only to sell it to the highest bidder? Hunting, fishing, bird watching, hiking, mountains, four-season activities and tourism, WATER-FRONT PROPERTY. WATER is an "evolving economic value natural resource. . .."
What price - our "lifeblood of an ecosystem in a future that almost certainly will not be blessed with a super-abundance of water."
Let's think about this: If Nestlé is granted permission to extract water from Shapleigh, more than likely, when purchasing bottled water, it'll be Shapleigh's own! Citizens will be buying back their own water!
To continue with McCloud's study:
Designated routes were set up by Nestlé and Hollis together. In fact Hollis' Planning Board stipulated in the (Nestlé) Building Permit that the company give its drivers a written policy instructing them to stay on designated routes and not to engine brake. But, Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission reported people stating at public hearings that trucks were using roads other than those designated, and that trucks have blocked intersections, crashed into signs, violated speed limits, and woke them at night. An 80,000 pound truck causes as much road damage as 10,000 passenger cars.
Some of Hollis' businesses reported increased activity due to truck traffic; others reported sporadic inactivity due to REQUIRED road construction projects. REQUIRED because of the increase in trucking.
Hollis' heavy vehicle traffic jumped 431 to 843 in the two years post-opening of the Nestlé plant.
In preparing the roads for Nestlé's trucks, Hollis paid out $700,000; Nestlé? $400,000.
Another issue to consider: Shapleigh, and so many of its surrounding towns, do not have law enforcement of their own. They depend on the State of Maine Police, and
the County Sheriff Dept, both of which do their jobs well. With the addition of many (50 has been mentioned) heavy vehicles traveling our roads, perhaps 24/7, will a separate police force need to be added? That would mean additional expenses for the town of Shapleigh.
Nestlé states it takes 1.86 liters to produce one liter of bottled water. This is 18.6 gallons for every 10 gallons! That is a 47% waste of our precious water! Waste water from Hollis' Nestlé plant is trucked to Old Orchard where it is disposed. The Ecosystem has now been deprived of 18.6 gallons of water so that Nestlé can sell 10 gallons. What about all the Nestlé trucks driving from Hollis to Old Orchard so they can dump water that isn't pure enough to put back into our ecosystem? 75% of recyclable material go into environmental waste. Only 25% is recycled!
Now lets talk bout the emissions coming from large trucks carrying huge amounts of water. Diesel exhaust has been linked to airborne cancer risks. Some trucks now use bio-diesel, but it is only a small amount; the rest is diesel.
Not all water bottle labels can claim its content is 'spring water.' We now hear tap water may be safer than bottled. Some restaurants in the City of Portland, ME have recently decided to not sell bottled water.
September, 2008, Woman's Day magazine put out a challenge: For one month, "Switch from soft drinks and bottled water to good old tap water, and see how much you end up saving."
Nestlé Waters North America is part of a worldwide conglomerate, Societe des Produits Nestle S.A., Vevey, Switzerland. It's this huge corporation versus Shapleigh's 2007 population count of 2,510!
If wells, lakes, ponds in the Shapleigh area dry up just a little bit, it impacts all of the area's ecosystem all the way down to the ocean!. Weather cannot be depended upon
to fill them up. Do we just sit and wait for the water to return? Or does Nestlé truck back the water it withdrew?
Martha Spiess from Freeport in her letter to the editor states that "Changing a
contract after the fact leaves taxpayers paying for their (Nestlé) removal, if it can happen at all."
Why would any community make a binding long-term contract for multiple years (30 has been mentioned) when there is no one knows what will happen tomorrow?
A significant number of Shapleigh Citizens feel the town's Board of Selectmen have not been as transparent with the large scale water extraction issue as they should have been.
With "Right to Know" POWWR has found information on an IF&W (Inland Fish & Wildlife) internal e-mail dated March 27, 2007 stating that Mr. Mark Dubois, Natural Resources Manager for Nestlé Waters NA (Poland Springs), called IF&W to report he was trying to set up a meeting with the first selectperson on Tuesday April 3,2007, and was requesting IF&W's attendance at the Town Office.
A POWWR representative went to the Town Office and read all of the selectmen's meeting minutes from 2007. There was no mention of a request by Poland Springs to meet with Shapleigh's Board of Selectmen. When something like this takes place it is customary that the board member report it at the next meeting for the record. Another example of a private meeting was the two hour meeting Mr. John Tewhey, Environmental Consultant, spoke of at a Planning Board Public Hearing. Mr Tewhey stated the meeting did happen on Friday 8-08-08. This is on the public hearing tape. Again no public notice and it was not in the minutes.
Also, there is a personal email between Selectman Hayes and Mr. Dubois. According to Worcester, MA's Telegram and Gazette, the same type of activity is taking place in Sterling, MA.
Nestlé/Poland Springs wrote a letter to Shapleigh's Planning Board in an apparent attempt to have input to the contents of its Large Scale Water Extraction Ordinance.
Nestlé/Poland Springs' representative, Mr. Dubois, said at an informational meeting in the spring of 2008 that this would be a transparent process. He, however, neglected to share tests results from the bore wells in Vernon WalkerWildlife Management Area. In fact he wrote POWWR's Researcher a full page letter stating there weren't any results.
References:
ECONorthwest, Eugene, OR The Potential Economic Effects of the Proposed Water Bottling Facility in McCloud
McCloud Watershed Council www.mccloudwatershedcouncil.org
Sperlings BEST Places www.bestplaces.net
Portland Press Herald www.pressherald.com
Protecting Our Water & Wildlife POWWR@live.com and www.defendingwaterinmaine.org/POWWR
Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp. www.telegram.com
Documentation available on request:
Contacts:
Ann Winn-Wentworth (207) 793-2242 (w), 793-2633 (h)
Mary Taylor: mtaylor2@juno.com
POWWR, 185 Hooper Road,
Shapleigh, ME 04076
e-mail: POWWR@live.com website: DefendingWaterInMaine.org/POWWR