Wells still says no to Nestle

Jeers to the April 10 editorial comments regarding the Kennebunk-Kennebunkport-Wells Water District’s 2008 rejection (under pressure from the town’s citizens) of a contract with Nestle Corp. The deal would have allowed Nestle to extract 432,000 gallons per day of our water for resale.

KKW would have received next to nothing and Nestle would have made tens of millions of dollars. Nestle already mines in excess of 700 million gallons of our Maine water every year, for which it pays no direct tax to the state of Maine.

When the water district contract failed, the town introduced a “regulatory” ordinance that would have officially permitted large-scale water extraction. On Nov. 3, 2009, Wells voters overwhelmingly said no to Nestle by rejecting this “regulatory” ordinance that would have granted extraction rights to the Nestle Corp. with no financial compensation to the town of Wells. Wells would have given away 432,000 gallons daily of our water in exchange for heavy rural truck traffic, failed wells and damaged roads — what a deal!

Doesn’t the Sun Journal editorial staff know that Poland Spring is a brand name for Nestle and no longer a Maine company?

Doesn’t the Sun Journal know or care that Maine is the Nigeria of water and Nestle is the Shell Oil?

Doesn’t the Sun Journal know or care that Nestle, a foreign, multi-national corporation — the largest food and beverage corporation in the world — is daily exploiting Maine’s most precious resource while our newspapers (Sun Journal included) are smiling and winking and giving them their blessing?

The Sun Journal editorial comments are strangely similar to the Portland Press Herald’s April 6, 2010, editorial regarding water rate hikes in the KKW Water District. What a coincidence.

Linda Dumey, Wells

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Displaying comments, from newest to oldest

Grady's picture

It's BILLIONS of empty water bottles that don't get recycled

H20-MAN - it's BILLIONS of empty water bottles that don't get recycled - plus tens of thousands of truck trips per year in rural Maine hauling out OUR water - tearing up our roads, polluting our air, and adding to the ugly Nestle carbon footprint.  And Nestle has the nerve to call itself a green company.  The only green is the funding of corporate lobbyists  and the green of present and future corporate profit.  Get back into your truck H20-MAN.  You've got yet another truckload of OUR Maine water to haul away.  Knock yourself out!

H2O-MAN's picture

Grady you sound like a !@#$%

Not a publicist but a concerned employee. I may not have spell check and you definitely don't have the facts so leave us alone and spend all your free time on a worthwhile cause that would actually help put people to work. It just isn't the empty bottles that don't get recycled but plastic in general (there could be your next agenda) so let's work together and find better ways to recycle because it isn't the bottles it's the people who are creating the problem.

Grady's picture

H20-MAN, you sound like Nestle's publicist

H20-MAN, you sound like Nestle's publicist, only without spell check.  Hate and discontent is not our motivation.  We are motivated by the desire to protect our aquifer, our municipal water supply, our private wells and to keep Nestle's trucks out of our community.  (It would take one truck hauling our water our and one empty truck coming back for a refill every 18 MINUTES, day and night, to haul that much water out every day.)  Further, bottled water is damaging to the environment.  Those empty bottles don't get recycled.

Publikwerks's picture

Jobs.   Oh wait, that would

Jobs.

 

Oh wait, that would interfere with collecting welfare. Nevermind

H2O-MAN's picture

Dumey ??

Here we go again. I urge all Maine residents to hear both sides of the story and make your own EDUCATED judgement call on this issue Please be aware that one side has facts and plenty of data to back the facts and the other side has just hate and discontent with multi-national corporations. Mrs. Dumey it must be difficult for you to buy groceries since two of Maine's largest grocerie stores are owned by multi-national corporations and I hope you don't bank with TD Bank because low and behold they are also run by a multi-national corporation. So let's put the facts on the table and keep the emotions out of the conversation because 800 people's jobs count on it!!

Grady's picture

Wells Still Says No to Nestle

Poland Spring is a brand name for Nestle – a Swiss multi-national corporation.  They claim 800 employees in Maine, but only 300 or so work at the Hollis plant and the rest are seasonal / temporary workers.  Wet year or drought – Nestle gets their 432,000 gallons first and if have a private well and it fails, tough luck.  You want to try to sue the biggest food and beverage corporation in the world?

Matt's picture

The 800 people

employed by Poland Spring in Maine may have a different opinion. You do know that the water they "mine" gets replenished don't you?

 

SSDD's picture

Linda

You are from Wells, so maybe you don't read the SJ daily, but this is typical of it's daily fount of stupidity.

rbegin's picture
verified

Linda I agree with you.

Linda I agree with you. Someone needs to Stop Nestle from contineuing to Rob our State of it's most valuable Resource' I Liken 'Nestle' to the invaders from the 80'TV Series titled 'V for Visitors'

Besides they are Lying , by Bottleing it and saying it's Poland Spring' where are the Majority Democrats when this Travesty is going on ?

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