The environmental group SomeOfUs has initiated a campaign to draw attention to the environmental harm that BlueTriton Brands, which bought much of Nestle Waters North America, is continuing to inflict on our planet. In their words,
SumOfUs is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we’re not afraid to hold them to account when they don’t.
SomeOfUs has been a leader in opposing Nestle in the U.S. which is now BlueTriton, owned by Dean Metropoulos who lives in Palm Beach, location of the mobile billboard on the truck which they parked in the street in front of Metropoulos’ home. They also have made a great video based on BlueTriton’s shortcomings, as seen below.
We appreciate the good work that SomeOfUs is doing and for the use of their photos in this post. The water bottling plant on the Santa Fe River near High Springs continues to pump water from our springs and aquifer to be sold at a profit by Seven Springs Water Company, run by the Ginnie Springs Wray family. See our post “Dark Clouds Form Over Ginnie Springs.”
This water bottling plant is gearing up for a record amount of water withdrawals with the resultant record number of plastic bottles which is garbage going into our streets, waterways, road ditches and landfills. At the moment their permit is for 895,000 gallons, per day. Annually, the plant in this neighborhood alone will account for nearly 327,000,000 gallons removed from our springs on the Santa Fe River.
The recent permit renewal for Seven Springs showed the true nature of the Suwannee River Water Management District when the Board of Directors did not consider for even a moment the nearly twenty thousand letters of opposition they received at the District. This action shows that this water district does not care for the public, nor do they care about the drawdown of water from springs and a river that they claim to want to restore. The irony is they are contributing to the further destruction of Ginnie Springs and the Santa Fe River.
This inexcusable decision by the Board is strong evidence that they see no point in any consideration of working with the public nor do they seek any common ground with the public. If twenty thousand voices go unheard we see little hope of communication or interaction in the future until this water management district, along with its board of directors, changes to a new direction.
