While the entire state is urged to conserve water and is potentially facing mandatory water usage restrictions, Nestlé is bottling the scarce resource straight from the heart of California’s drought and selling it for profit.
Since Nestlé’s bottling plant, which extracts water for its Arrowhead and Pure Life brands -- is located on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ reservation, it is exempt from oversight by local water agencies and is able to keep information about its groundwater levels and usage confidential. Therefore, it’s impossible to know just how much of the limited resource the plant is extracting to export and sell elsewhere. And to top it off, the bottling plant is located in one of the most drought-stricken areas of the state. We urge the administration to end this!