Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that current status of the permit.
Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Forest Service could issue Nestle a new five-year permit that would enable the company to continue piping water out of the San Bernardino National Forest for its bottled water operations, per a new proposal.
- Per the National Environmental Policy Act, granting that permit first requires a 45-day period for public comments (open until May 2) and an environmental analysis for which the agency has formed a team to complete. The team will take public comments into account during the environmental analysis.
- The agency's move comes one year after the Forest Service had said that Nestle's permit to pump water out of Strawberry Creek in California had expired in 1988. The agency has since clarified that the permit had not expired.
Dive Insight:
As part of the investigation, Nestle "will be required to conduct hydrologic and riparian studies to better understand the relationship between water extraction, surface flows, and riparian habitat," and nearby comparison sites will be studied "to determine what conditions would exist in Strawberry Creek without water extraction," according to the USFS's proposal.
If Nestle or any other company in the future intends to pump water from certain sites, particularly in drought-stricken California, it can expect to potentially be required to invest resources in conducting these environmental analyses. These requirements would not only be government-sanctioned, but not performing them risks a company's reputation.
In many instances sustainability can be mutually beneficial for the environment, consumers, and the company. In this case, the need for sustainability while pumping water from a region suffering from a drought could be more costly. Such a situation encourages manufacturers to be proactive about environmental and sustainability issues.
Per the proposal, a suggested management plan would require that a company only extract groundwater or divert surface water "when it is demonstrated by the user, and/or agreed to by the Forest Service, that the water extracted is excess to the current and reasonably foreseeable future needs of forest resources."