Nestle

Davis attorney Don Mooney has agreed to take the case if the issue goes to court. Mooney represented McCloud residents in their six-year fight against a Nestlé Waters North America water-bottling plant near Mt. Shasta. The company abandoned plans for the plant in September.

A $14 million retrofit of a proposed Nestlé water-bottling plant has ground to a halt after the city of Sacramento issued a stop-work order while investigating whether the work began before the company had legal authorization from the city.

Discussion over a Nestlé water-bottling plant appears to be growing in Sacramento, as the Swiss multinational prepares a facility for operation and new hires begin work.

The Sacramento City Council, which was not involved in the decision to approve the plant, will discuss the issue publicly for the first time after a request two weeks ago by council members Kevin McCarty and Lauren Hammond. They asked the council to consider an emergency ordinance requiring a special permit before Nestlé Waters North America begins bottling city tap water and spring water at a plant in South Sacramento.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson recently told The Bee that, "We need to light a fire under the city's efforts to save water." Most Sacramentans did not interpret this as meaning we should save water for Nestlé to truck away in disposable plastic bottles.

Nestlé wants to start taking a reported 30 million gallons of local municipal water a year in early 2010, despite objections that there was no public input or environmental review for their proposed water-bottling plant.

The Sacramento City Council will discuss whether it should draft an urgency ordinance that would require special permits for water bottling facilities after some members of the community raised concerns over a new Nestle water plant planned for south Sacramento.

Councilman Kevin McCarty asked Tuesday night for city staff to place the discussion on a council agenda in the near future. He also asked the city's utilities department to explore a system of tiered water rates for commercial facilities.

After six years of surprisingly contentious and frustrating attempts to bottle the glacier-fed spring water flowing in the small Northern California town of McCloud, Nestlé is giving up.

With Nestlé’s announcement to withdraw its water bottling facility plans only four days old and a public hearing on the issue of raising district water service rates, it was no surprise that last Monday’s McCloud directors meeting was packed.

With a public hearing for protest against a proposed water rate increase scheduled first, many residents presented their concerns on the issue.

McCloud, Calif. -

Nestlé Waters North America has decided to withdraw its proposal to build a bottling facility in McCloud.
The decision followed what Nestlé Waters described as “a thorough analysis of its business operations in Northern California,” including the new facility the company has secured in Sacramento that it sees as a replacement for the production expected from McCloud.

McCloud, Calif. -

There are no plans to pull out of McCloud quite yet, which was reported in Monday’s Siskiyou Daily News, according to Dave Palais, Nestlé Waters North America’s natural resources manager for Northern California.

Palais, who has been involved with the plans for a bottling plant in McCloud for several years, said in an interview Monday that Nestlé has selected a site in Sacramento for a new proposed bottling facility, but the impact that facility will have on plans for McCloud is yet to be analyzed.