Why Are They Getting Away With It?

Water pipe in the San Bernardino National Forest
Water pipe in the San Bernardino National Forest

One of the largest bottled water companies on the planet extracted approximately 166.5 million gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest over the last three years.

For free.

There’s some controversy over this because a permit is required to pump the water, but the company in question has been pumping without one since 1988. The company has been allowed to continue pumping because of an agreement with the Forest Service while the permit issue is investigated and fixed.

That’s nearly 20 years of pumping with an expired permit, though the company has paid a $534 annual fee. The company pays nothing for the actual water extracted.

That’s outrageous, isn’t it?

You can read more about it here, but the point we want to make is a simple one.

Castle Rock Water believes in paying a fair price to the community where water is bottled. If the company in question paid the same rate Castle Rock pays, it would have injected nearly $5 million back into the local economy; money that could have been used for schools, environmental protection, social programs, and more.

Across the entire state of California, this company bottles about 700 million gallons, which would amount to $21 million that would have gone back into state and local budgets.

Castle Rock isn’t anywhere near the size of this other company, but still has contributed over a half million dollars back to the community of Dunsmuir. There are no rules that say bottled water companies have to do this, but it’s truly the right thing to do.

Castle Rock Water will continue to lead by example and advocate that all companies that sell bottled water pay a fair price for it.

Until then, you can help by skipping brands that don’t pay a fair price for water and supporting companies that do.

It’s just the right thing to do.

 

 

1 thought on “Why Are They Getting Away With It?”

  1. Pingback: American Sourced, Part 5: Responsibilities of Water Bottlers | Castle Rock Water Co.

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