US Forest Service sued over Nestle’s groundwater use

The US Forest Service is being sued by three advocacy group for allegedly allowing Nestle, the largest bottled water company in the US, to drawing water from a national forest, in contravention of federal laws. The groups accuse the company of not reviewing or renewing its permit in 27 years.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday in US District Court by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Story of Stuff Project and the Courage Campaign Institute. They want the Forest Service to halt Nestle's use of a pipeline that carries water from 11 wells out of the San Bernardino National Forest for bottling.

The lawsuit comes seven months after The Desert Sun conducted an investigation that revealed Nestle had been drawing water from the San Bernardino National Forest using a permit with a 1988 expiry date.

According to the groups, the Forest Service should stop Nestle's use of the water pipeline ''unless and until it issues a valid special use permit.''

''It's basically an unpermitted use, an unlawful use,'' Lisa Belenky, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a telephone interview, USA Today reported.

Responding to an email Forest Service, press officer, John Heil said about the lawsuit, ''We cannot discuss ongoing or pending litigation.''

The permits, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, were issued in 1976, but they expired 12 years later.

The centre said no new special use permit had ever been issued.

According to the lawsuit, the water supplied the Arrowhead brand of bottled drinking water.

''We're just learning there is a lawsuit,'' said Jane Lazgin, spokeswoman for Nestle Waters North America. ''We are not in a position to comment.''

As California struggles to meet its water requirements under historic drought conditions, Nestle had come under fire for its bottling operations.

Online community group, Courage Campaign, in April, collected over 135,000 signatures to demand that Nestle discontinue those operations in California under the Arrowhead and Pure Life brands.

The group has called on Nestle, operator of three of five statewide water bottling operations in Southern California, to shut down, and urged the state Water Resources Control Board to step in and close the operations.

California's ongoing drought is expected to cost the  economy in the most populous US state an estimated $2.74 billion in 2015 and lead to the loss of 10,000 seasonal farm jobs, despite the state's agricultural sector being in good shape, say researchers. (See: California's drought to cost the state $2.74 billion in 2015).