OSFR’s board member Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson got her message across very effectively at the annual Delegation meeting Tues. Jan. 19, 2021 in Lake City. She wore a large collection of plastic water bottles made by Nestle Waters North America while speaking to the politicians. In Nestle’s hype they imply that they recycle much of their plastic bottles, but this is a lie and the truth is they do not. Because of OSFR’S 501c3 status, Merrillee represented only herself.
Plastic has become a very serious problem in our world in the past few decades, and even now we do not know all the dangers it presents to our health.
Switzerland-based Nestle, by way of Seven Springs Water Company, wants to renew a permit near High Springs which could produce up to six thousand bottles per minute, at the same time further damaging Ginnie Springs and the Santa Fe River.
Following is the article from Stew Lilker’s Columbia County Observer, which he has kindly given us permission to repost.
Here is the link to the video of Merrillee’s presentation. Timestamp
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
County News |
Columbia County’s Legislative Delegation Gets a Visual: Bottled Water Is Also About the BottlesPosted January 20, 2021 02:25 pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – As the curtain drew down on yesterday’s legislative delegation meeting, the environment, a bellwether issue for Florida, was brought front and center by environmentalist and springs protector Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson. Strikingly, she let everybody know that bottling Florida’s spring water is also about the bottles. The delegation was represented by Senator Jennifer Bradley and her staff and only Representative Brannan’s staff, as he was down with the coronavirus. Early yesterday morning, your reporter asked Ms. Malwitz-Jipson if she would be attending the afternoon’s legislative delegation meeting. She said she wasn’t planning on attending, but after a brief conversation, she said she would get ready and attend. See related articles: With Niagara’s recent water bottling plant overtures to Columbia County and the Seven Springs – Nestlé water use permit renewal application waiting for a decision from an administrative law judge, Ms. Malwitz-Jipson came before the delegation to give her take on the region’s water situation. Covered in a shawl of empty water bottles, she told the delegation, “I am standing in opposition to one of the most unnecessary businesses currently operating in the state of Florida.” “I have spent years of research fighting off four new permits to bottle water from our iconic springs in North Central Florida, and our community was successful in fending off four of them directly in and along the Santa Fe River.” A Trillion Gallons of Water
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