EVART, MI — The company formerly known as Nestle Waters North America has surrendered a controversial permit to extract Michigan groundwater for bottling and plans to decrease its withdrawal by enough to sidestep the extensive environmental scrutiny that came with it.
In a Sept. 28 letter, Blue Triton Brands told the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) that it “will not be utilizing” the permit its corporate predecessor obtained in 2018 following an extensive review that was prompted by public outcry over the company’s plans to increase groundwater extraction in Osceola County.
The permit, granted under Section 17 of the state Safe Drinking Water Act, allowed Nestle to increase its White Pine Springs well extraction from 250 to 400 gallons-per-minute (gpm) once the company developed an extensive plan to monitor groundwater levels, stream flows, wetlands, aquatic life and habitat in the surrounding watershed.
That permit has been tied-up in a slow-moving legal challenge for several years and Nestle never dialed-up the pumping rate before selling its American bottled water division for $4.3 billion to One Rock Capital Partners, a New York private equity firm that rebranded the company as Blue Triton.
According to its letter, Blue Triton would instead pump at 288-gpm, a decrease that allows the company to avoid the monitoring requirements and clear a lower regulatory bar that involves modeling the extraction on a computer rather than taking measurements in-the-field.
Blue Triton’s new 288-gpm extraction already passed the state’s computer model, the Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool, according to EGLE. The company has until March 28, 2023 to install a new pump or the approval expires. Once installed, Blue Triton can begin pumping at the new rate, which equates to 414,720 gallons-per-day at full capacity.
EGLE says the annual withdrawal cap is 20,059,039 gallons.
The new extraction is not subject to legal requirements that stipulated approval from the drinking water division at EGLE, according the letter sent by Arlene Anderson-Vincent at Blue Triton’s Ice Mountain bottling plant in Stanwood.
Blue Triton issued a brief statement through a public relations firm this week, saying it is “currently able to source sufficient water from existing sources.”
“BlueTriton will not utilize the extra capacity authorized under the approved Section 17 permit at this time. We appreciate the hard work of the Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy staff throughout the permit review process.”
A Michigan activist group that opposes water privatization and which has fought the various Nestle withdrawals for more than 20 years says Blue Triton has asked them to drop a pending legal challenge to the controversial permit.
The Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) is currently awaiting an Ingham County judge’s appellate decision on whether it has standing to contest the permit within state administrative court. EGLE dismissed the group’s appeal this year after an administrative judge upheld the permit approval, which was granted under former Gov. Rick Snyder and subsequently defended by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration.
Peggy Case, president of the MCWC, said Blue Triton appears to be attempting a “total reset” on the Nestle controversy.
Case said the group is pleased about the lower extraction rate, “but certainly not happy they will still be pumping even more than they already are.”
Even at 250-gpm, Case said the well has reduced the water volume in Twin Creek and Chippewa Creek, two cold-water tributaries of the Muskegon River. Headwaters for the two streams are near the company’s well, located in Osceola Township northwest of Evart.
The well supplies the Ice Mountain spring water brand. According to federal labeling rules, “spring water” must come from a shallow aquifer that vents to the surface.
The MCWC says both creeks run lower and mudflats have worsened in an impounded area of Chippewa Creek since Nestle increased well extraction from 150 to 250-gpm in 2015.
In 2009, the group won a settlement in litigation against Nestle that limited company extraction at a different wellfield, Sanctuary Springs in Mecosta County, to 218-gpm.
“They are still pumping the streams dry,” Case said. “We have our own physical evidence but that’s not good enough for anybody. We don’t have credentials, so they just ignore us and go back to their computer models.”
In February, Nestle unloaded its U.S. bottled water division amid a slowdown in market growth following a boom in recent years as consumers shifted away from soda, as well as increasing concern with the mounting single-use plastic waste created by beverage manufacturing.
Nestle put $36 million into expanding the Ice Mountain bottling plant in 2016, anticipating easy regulatory approvals for increasing groundwater extraction. Instead, news of the company’s plans generated intense backlash that forced the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ, now called EGLE) to backpedal and put the permit request under the microscope.
Nestle’s business model drew substantial criticism following the Flint water crisis and water shutoffs in Detroit for residents who couldn’t afford their utility bills. The company does not pay a fee or royalty on groundwater extracted in Michigan. Instead, the company pays a $200 per-facility state paperwork fee. It also pays the standard municipal rate for water in Evart, a small town in Osceola County.
The permit controversy is separate but related to a local zoning dispute between Nestle and Osceola Township, which hampered Nestle’s plans to build new distribution infrastructure needed to move the additional White Pine Springs water to its bottling plant. The township withheld approval to build a booster station to increase the pressure in a water pipeline. The Michigan Court of Appeals sided with the township in 2019, rejecting Nestle’s argument that bottled water met the zoning definition of an “essential public service.”
Blue Triton’s brand portfolio includes the Poland Spring brand in Maine, Deer Park brand in Maryland, Ozarka brand in Texas, Arrowhead brand in California and Zephyr Hills brand in Florida. The Connecticut-based company has 27 production facilities across North America and sources water from 38 active springs throughout the country.
Related stories:
Michigan assets part of $4.3B Nestle sale
The Great Lakes are awash in plastic. What can be done?
Nestle water extraction permit appeal rejected
Nestle wins legal challenge in Michigan
Why Nestle pays next to nothing for Michigan groundwater
How Michigan water becomes a product inside Nestle plant
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