MCWC PRESS RELEASE 

Judge Denies Temporary Restraining Order,
But States That Perrier Builds Bottling Plant Now at its Own Risk

June 19, 2001

Contacts: Jim Samuels, Attorney for MCWC (231) 796-8858
  Jim Olson, Attorney for MCWC (231) 946-0044
  Terry Swier, President of MCWC (231) 972-8856


 In an oral opinion delivered at 3:00 today by conference call, Mecosta
County Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Root denied an emergency request to stop
construction at the site of a proposed Perrier bottling plant in Mecosta
County, Michigan. At the same time, however, the judge stated that Perrier
assumed the "business risks" of its "business decision" to start building
the plant now before the legality of its water pumping plan is determined.
 The Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation ("MCWC"), a grassroots
community group, filed the suit yesterday seeking to stop the construction
of a water bottling plant by Great Spring Waters of America, a subsidiary of
Perrier. The proposed plant is located on 8 mile road near US 131 in Mecosta
Township outside of Big Rapids, Michigan.
MCWC argued that construction of the plant was premature because no decision
has been made on Perrier's applications for permits to pump the water from a
site 11 miles away, and to pipe it to the plant site. In addition, two
state legislators, Rep. Julie Dennis of Muskegon and Sen. Christopher
Dingell of Trenton, have recently asked Attorney General Jennifer Granholm
for an opinion on whether the Perrier plan will violate various laws and
treaties prohibiting the export of Great Lakes water out of the Great Lakes
basin. MCWC argued that if construction of the plant proceeded without
these and other issues being resolved first, it would become difficult or
impossible to stop Perrier's operation in court.
 Judge Root stated that he would not stop construction of the bottling plant
because the water pumping plan was the real issue, and not the plant itself.
The judge cautioned Perrier that it "assumed the risk" involved if it built
the plant but could not get authorization on one of the other issues, and
that Perrier could not argue later that it was too deeply invested in the
plant to be prevented from going forward with its plan to pump over 200
million gallons of water per year from springs at the headwaters of the
Little Muskegon River.