In Colorado, the Chaffee County Board of Commissioners are currently considering renewing Nestle Waters 1041 permit for another ten-years. The hearing is scheduled for October 20, 2020.  They do not have to rubber stamp this request. Please join us in urging the commissioners to decline renewal of this permit.  We are asking them to use their discretion, as the permit specifically states, and refuse to allow Nestle to continue hauling water out of our valley.

In 2009, Nestle Waters was permitted to extract up to 200 gallons of water per minute from an aquifer in Chaffee County, Colorado, which is located near Browns Canyon National Monument. The water is trucked 130 miles to Denver, where it is packaged in single-use plastic water bottles and sold as spring water under the Arrowhead brand name.

This multinational company, with an extensive record of environmental and humanitarian abuses world-wide, was permitted to drill their wells in this small, rural community. That was a time of extreme economic recession. Nestle Waters promised local jobs and donations to area schools and non-profit organizations. Ten years later, Nestle has fallen short on their promises by not hiring the required number of local truck drivers, and they have not placed the land into a conservation easement, as their 2009 permit required. In fact, Nestle Waters has “traded” away the most valuable riverfront portion of the property to private citizens who will build on the land.

The people in the community are environmentally-aware, and the impacts of aquifer extraction, plastic waste, and fossil fuel emissions are not in line with the locals’ values. We do not want to be complicit in the proliferation of the plastic bottle industry.  Help us stand up to Nestle Waters.  

For more information join our facebook page: Un-Bottle & Protect Chaffee County Water