Huge Victory Against Nestlé

This small victory against Nestle's corporate greed could have far-reaching implications.

COURT RULING: Nestle's commercial water-bottling operation is “not an essential public service” or a public water supply.

A Michigan court has dealt a huge blow to Nestle’s water bottling operations, ruling that Nestle’s planned pumping station would violate zoning laws because its private bottling of water does not constitute “an essential public service”, as Nestle’s legal team argued.

Fortunately, the judges saw right through Nestle’s dishonesty, writing that while yes, water is an essential public good, the context must be considered: Nestle is a private bottling company making private profit, and that marketing bottled water where tap water is freely available is, to put it modestly, “not essential”.

“What this lays bare is the extent to which private water marketers like Nestlé, and others like them, go [in] their attempts to privatize sovereign public water, public water services, and the land and communities they impact,” Michigan environmental attorney Jim Olson said in a recent interview with The Guardian.

Osceola Township is small, but this case has potential ramifications for the rest of the country. This ruling may also cause regulators around the Great Lakes to reconsider permits that have been hastily granted to private corporations. This is a local victory, but it takes local victories to turn the tide against corporate greed.

Nestle's "Ice Mountain" plant. Note the lack of 1) ice and 2) mountains