Nestle wants to bottle water from Florida's Ginnie Springs -- for free

[RyanT]

I think Florida water bottlers should be required to use desalinization and filtration rather than sucking up the aquifer. Alternatively, they could hit the road.

I like the last sentence in this quote, but desalinization is incredibly expensive and energy intensive. It's not an "easy" solution.

 

[The Chairman]

 

[kelemvor]

 

[abnfrog]

nestle, Is one of the worst companies with bad business practices I have ever seen I have sent complaints to my MP (state rep ) asking him to look in there practices here in Ontario....nothing happens

 

[rjack321]

As an aside, Tobermory adopted curbside garbage pickup a few years ago and it's done by a contractor now. I put my recycling Blue Box out last Monday morning, and one small under the counter size bad of garbage. I was still in the yard when the truck stopped and I watched as the dude tossed the garbage and the contents of the Blue Box in to the same door on the truck! WTF?

I've sent a note to the township to ask if they have ever verified that the contractor deals with the waste and the recycling appropriately. I'm hoping that what I witnessed was an absent-minded error, but I have my doubts.

There's no market for recyclables at the moment. Most of it used to go to China but they blocked imports since they are all too dirty with contaminants.
Since China’s Ban, Recycling in the US Has Gone Up in Flames

 

[karstdvr]

Nestle wants to bottle water from Florida's Ginnie Springs -- for free

Start calling and fighting this. Look at that company's track record. They destroy everything they touch. We have to fight to preserve the Springs.

Where I am not a user of bottled water, nor a fan of the product as well as plastic refuse, Nestle is not the enemy. First magnitude springs by definition discharge over 60 million gallons per day, and the Nestle permit isn't putting a pipe into Ginnie,but tapping the aquifer,so the impact will not be palpable. The problem is people don't look at the real problem in Florida, and address that. The Suwannee River Water Management report shows that somewhere close to 90 million per day is pumped out of the ground by agriculture, or it takes around 24000 gallons of water per acre of farm land with center pivot irrigation. If you drive around rural Florida, you will see irrigation for miles. The other thing is that agriculture is primarily responsible for the nutrient loading of the aquifer which comes from fertilizer. Ginnie a few years ago with water quality testing showed a sharp rise in nitrates in the tested water, which they quietly sued the DEP. If there is real concern for the ground water and the environment then conservative agricultural water practices are needed. Nestle does have a water plant around Madison blue spring, and that would be a good comparison, because as far as I am aware water flow levels haven't been impacted, plus Nestle has been proactive in protecting the resource because I have read the 3rd party environmental studies, which the state of Florida doesn't have the resources to do.

 

[kensuf]

I'm not a big fan of the bottled water industry for reasons related to plastic bottles, but to continue what Kelly said, Nestle has a commercial interest in keeping the water that flows from the aquifer free of nitrates and other pollutants. Agricultural interests with their pivot irrigation fields and dairy cows don't. The porosity of limestone means that when you dump fertilizer on top of the soils, it will seep down into the aquifer polluting the groundwater.

 

[karstdvr]

I'm not a big fan of the bottled water industry for reasons related to plastic bottles, but to continue what Kelly said, Nestle has a commercial interest in keeping the water that flows from the aquifer free of nitrates and other pollutants. Agricultural interests with their pivot irrigation fields and dairy cows don't. The porosity of limestone means that when you dump fertilizer on top of the soils, it will seep down into the aquifer polluting the groundwater.

If anybody has been in Cathedral (Falmouth) will see visibility around 10-20ft at best. All we have to do is read Caverns Measureless to Man to see Sheck's description of great visibility. There is documentation in old UWS issues where people would be at the bottom of the sink and see trees overhead. I remember first diving the site in the mid-90s and seeing 50-60ft, and on rare occasions 70-80ft. Documentation from exploration shows large conduits of the cave going under animal farms with spray fields. All this waste is going into the aquifer, and killing the visibility. I almost wish Nestle had water bottling there because they would report water quality findings, and do something about it.

 

[The Chairman]

What do you think Nestle will do? Probably nothing nada and squat in that precise order. They will find a way to make the water they pump out drinkable and that's about it. Meanwhile, there will be more pressure on the water table and more salt water intrusion.

 

[rjack321]

Where I am not a user of bottled water, nor a fan of the product as well as plastic refuse, Nestle is not the enemy. First magnitude springs by definition discharge over 60 million gallons per day, and the Nestle permit isn't putting a pipe into Ginnie,but tapping the aquifer,so the impact will not be palpable. The problem is people don't look at the real problem in Florida, and address that. The Suwannee River Water Management report shows that somewhere close to 90 million per day is pumped out of the ground by agriculture, or it takes around 24000 gallons of water per acre of farm land with center pivot irrigation. If you drive around rural Florida, you will see irrigation for miles. The other thing is that agriculture is primarily responsible for the nutrient loading of the aquifer which comes from fertilizer. Ginnie a few years ago with water quality testing showed a sharp rise in nitrates in the tested water, which they quietly sued the DEP. If there is real concern for the ground water and the environment then conservative agricultural water practices are needed. Nestle does have a water plant around Madison blue spring, and that would be a good comparison, because as far as I am aware water flow levels haven't been impacted, plus Nestle has been proactive in protecting the resource because I have read the 3rd party environmental studies, which the state of Florida doesn't have the resources to do.

Its a pretty sad day when Nestle, Inc. has a greater interest in protecting a natural resource held in the public trust than FL DEP