The Keep Nestle Out Of The Gorge campaign kicked off Monday with a friendly little reminder from Mother Nature on what this is all about.
It rained.
You see, as far as anti-Nestle organizers are concerned this debate is all about water – who gets to control it, and how it’s used.
Nestle wants to build a $50 million water bottling plant at Cascade Locks in the Columbia River Gorge. Plans including drawing about 100 million gallons of spring water every year from nearby Oxbow Springs. But that water belongs to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife which uses it for a fish hatchery.
And this is where the whole thing gets a little complicated. Nestle wants ODFW to transfer some of its rights to Oxbow Springs water to the city of Cascade Locks. Then Nestle buys the water from the city. In exchange, Cascade Locks gives back to ODFW an equal amount of water from the city’s wells. ODFW just started testing the well water to see if it will work as a substitute. The test should take about a year.
But the Keep Out Nestle coalition hopes ODFW will say no, regardless of how the tests turn out. At today’s event, they handed over a petition with the names of 4,000 Oregonians who oppose the transfer of water rights.
In the first video, you’ll hear just some of the reasons why the coalition is opposed. They’re concerned that letting Nestle draw all that water from Oxbow Springs won’t be good for the hatchery and will be harmful to wild fish. Some of the coalition are opposed to giving a private company control over a public resource such as water. There’s also an anti-Nestle attitude. The company is accused of exploiting small towns in economic trouble. Plus, bottled water is coming under increasing criticism from environmental groups who think it’s a huge waste of resources when tap water is just as good and a lot cheaper.
In the second video, you’ll hear Julia DeGraw of Food and Water Watch answer my question about the economic impact of the Nestle plant. I asked her what she’d say to residents of Cascade Locks, who suffer some of the highest unemployment in the state. Plans for a casino in town are being strongly opposed, and now so is the Nestle plant. That prompted a very interesting conversation with a commissioner from the Port of Cascade Locks. More on that after the videos.
Video: Keep Nestle Out Of The Gorge Kick-Off
Video: The economic impact of the Nestle plant
Afterwards, I had a good talk with a member of the Port of Cascade Locks Commission. Jess Groves didn’t want to talk with me on camera, but he did do an interview with OPB.
Among the issues he talked about, will the Nestle plant take too much water from the area? Groves says it won’t. He says even if the plant is built, and the casino is built, the town’s water supply will only be running at about half its capacity. “Water is an abundance,” in Cascade Locks he told us, saying the area gets about 85 inches of rain a year.
Groves also says Nestle is doing a good job of addressing the concerns of residents. That includes the noise from trucks hauling out the bottled water from the plant. He says Nestle has agreed to re-route the trucks away from the busy parts of town.
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Nestles truck will affect everyone who uses I-84, not just those in Cascade Locks. Nestle has not addressed the concerns of Portland residents who will also be affected by the truck traffic.
Also, if the well water is so satisfactory, why doesn’t Nestle just buy that instead?
I don’t understand how ODFW alias “us” has the right to swap or give away “our” water rights.
“We” as the City of Cascade Locks could do our own appropriately scaled bottling. “Oxbow Springs” sounds yummy and the label could tell the story of how the people got together and bottled their water in biodegradable packaging etc.
Even a non-profit can bottle and market water.