We just had a huge development in our fight to stop Nestlé from stealing California’s water.
Staff of the state’s water resources board said the company’s spin-off that now bottles Arrowhead brand, BlueTriton Brands, must stop siphoning millions of gallons from the San Bernardino National Forest — especially given that the entire state is now suffering from a drought.
That’s a big win, and now we have an opportunity to take it one step further — to stop the stealing of water, permanently.
Nestlé sold their North American bottled water brands to two private equity firms operating as BlueTriton Brands in February, and now BlueTriton has to get a permit from the U.S. Forest Service to continue taking water from the San Bernardino National Forest.
From 2018-2020 alone, Nestlé stole 173 million more gallons than it was permitted to do. Even as average Californians face restrictions amid the state’s second dry year in a row, BlueTriton is drawing upwards of 25 times as much water as is legal. The permit costs a pittance and allows the company to resell the public’s water under its Arrowhead brand for a huge profit.
This cease-and-desist order from the water board staff is just the latest twist in our years-long campaign to protect California’s water. From 2015-2018, Courage California sued, organized, and worked with partners to show how the company had been swindling Californians based on water rights dating back to 1865.
BlueTriton is already fighting back, challenging the order and tying it up in a process that could take weeks, months, or years. That’s why we’re partnering again with Story of Stuff to put a stop to this once and for all, by going straight to the top and asking the U.S. Forest Service to deny BlueTriton a new permit.
We need to stop the Forest Service from reissuing a water permit to BlueTriton for billions more gallons of water, and to get Nestlé to dismantle the pipeline for good.