Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation

For Immediate Release:

October 18, 2006

Contact:            Terry Swier, President MCWC - 231-972-8856

Jim Olson, Attorney MCWC – 231-946-0044

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation asks for disclosure of Nestlé’s

future plans in Newaygo County

Mecosta – October 18, 2006 – On behalf of its members, including those who

reside in Newaygo County, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation sent a

Freedom of Information Act letter to Steve Chester, Director of the Michigan

Department of Environmental Quality requesting that the MDEQ demand public

disclosure by Nestle Waters North America Inc. for any new or proposed water

source and/or water well sites under consideration in Newaygo County and

other Counties, all studies, reports, and information related to

hydrogeological soil and water investigations, tests, sampling, monitoring,

pump tests, proposed truck routes or pipelines to the Stanwood Ice Mountain

Plant. A letter demanding the same disclosure was sent directly to Nestlé’s

headquarters and to its plant in Michigan.

Nestlé Waters North America Inc. (Nestlé) announced through its

representatives and media arm that it has been scouting new “spring” well

sites in Newaygo County for the past three years. The two possible well

sites are located in Wilcox and Monroe Township about 15-20 miles from

Nestlé’s Ice Mountain plant in Stanwood, Michigan in Mecosta County.

Judge Lawrence Root, Circuit Court Judge, ruled in Michigan Citizens for

Water Conservation v Nestlé Waters North America Inc. in 2003 that the

extraction and sale of tributary groundwater that effects flows and levels

of lakes and a stream was unlawful. The Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Root’s

ruling that Nestle’s well field operation in Mecosta County caused unlawful

harm to an inland lake and stream. The legality of  Nestle’s water exports

from Michigan’s watershed and the Great Lakes basin is  pending in the

Michigan Supreme Court.

“MCWC is shocked that Nestlé would continue with more secret non-public

water takings, given that the water is a public resource held in trust for

the people of Michigan. Nestlé’s arrogance is apparent with charging ahead

when the Mecosta County Circuit Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals both

determined that Nestlé’s pumping caused substantial harm in the headwaters

of the West Branch of the Little Muskegon River in Mecosta County,” said

Terry Swier, president of MCWC.

Jim Olson, legal counsel for MCWC, said, “These type of private water

exports that diminish our lakes and streams, whether in ships, trucks, or

bottles, should not permitted to continue.  If the citizens of Michigan do

not keep strict control on who, when, where and for what purpose someone is

allowed to export our water for private gain, we will ourselves in dire

straits when the global demand for water comes crashing on our shores.”

MCWC believes the public is entitled to information involving the proposed

removal of public waters from a watershed for export outside of the Great

Lakes basin or the watersheds of the State. Without such information,

citizens, property owners, and communities who are affected have left means

to evaluate proposals, like Nestle’s, to continuously remove water for

hundreds of years.