Activists have called Nestlé a lightning rod for much bigger issues, such as fears of water scarcity, which recent disputes in California have demonstrated. Last year, Courage Campaign launched a petition asking Nestlé to shut down bottling operations in the state amidst the historic drought, despite the company’s claims that its operations were not a contributing factor.
Meanwhile, a Desert Sun investigation found that Nestlé’s permit to use a four-mile pipeline that siphons water from Strawberry Creek in San Bernardino National Forest expired in 1988, and that the company was still paying just $524 a year for the millions of gallons it collects (the company drew 36 million gallons from Strawberry Creek in 2015, but some years it collected as much as 170 million gallons). Courage Campaign has since teamed up with the Story of Stuff Project and Center for Biological Diversity to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for allowing Nestlé to bottle water from the park, leading to an ongoing legal case.