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December 6, 2019 03:30 am

Nestle Cannot Claim Bottled Water Is 'Essential Public Service,' Court Rules

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Michigan's second-highest court has dealt a legal blow to Nestle's Ice Mountain water brand, ruling that the company's commercial water-bottling operation is "not an essential public service" or a public water supply. The court of appeals ruling is a victory for Osceola township, a small mid-Michigan town that blocked Nestle from building a pumping station that doesn't comply with its zoning laws. But the case could also throw a wrench in Nestle's attempts to privatize water around the country. The Osceola case stems from Nestle's attempt to increase the amount of water it pulls from a controversial wellhead in nearby Evart from about 250 gallons per minute to 400 gallons per minute. It needs to build the pump in a children's campground in Osceola township to transport the increased load via a pipe system. The township in 2017 rejected the plans based on its zoning laws, and Nestle subsequently sued. A lower court wrote in late 2017 that water was essential for life and bottling water was an "essential public service" that met a demand, which trumped Osceola township's zoning laws. However, a three-judge panel in the appellate court reversed the decision. "The circuit court's conclusion that [Nestle's] commercial water bottling operation is an 'essential public service' is clearly erroneous," the judges wrote. "Other than in areas with no other source of water, bottled water is not essential." "The court noted that infrastructure that provides essential public services included electrical substations, sewage facilities or other similar structures," the report adds. "Nestle's pumping station does not fit in that category." The judges also disagreed with Nestle's argument that it represented a 'public water supply.' They said state law 'unambiguously' implies public water supplies are 'conveyed to a site through pipes' while nonessential water is provided in bottles."

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