Nestle Continues Attempts to “Force Their Hand” Against Shapleigh Citizens

It’s instructive to watch Nestle Waters enforce the same blueprint rural community after rural community.

While I’ve got a report coming about last week’s McCloud meeting, this article on Nestle’s attempt to (as they so quaintly put it) “force their hand” in the tiny rural town of Shapleigh reads as if it was taken from the Nestle playbook:

Shapleigh and Newfield are small rural communities, nestled in the foothills of the Presidential mountain range. Combined, the towns’ population is less then 4,000 residents.

These two small Maine towns share an abundant sand and gravel aquifer that is protected by the 4,000 acre Vernon Walker Game Management Area. Vernon Walker is publicly owned state land that is managed by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. In 2006, without any public oversight, Nestlé sunk up to 16 bore wells in this public land to determine the viability of industrial water extraction.

When the state offered a price/gallon too high for the Fortune 500 company, they started bargaining with Shapleigh town officials in an effort to instead begin operating on town land adjacent to Vernon Walker.

On September 20, 2008, Shapleigh citizens sent a clear message to Nestlé when the town voted overwhelmingly for a 180-day moratorium to protect their groundwater. They also voted NO to drilling and testing by Nestlé on the town-owned parcel of land.

In the Boston Globe, Nestlé’s lead geologist was quoted as saying, “we might need to force our hand” in regards to the resistance of Shapleigh and Newfield residents.

And since the vote in September, the company has not stopped in its efforts to get the precious water from this area, and the Town’s elected officials are attempting to push forward an ordinance that will open the door to large scale industrial water extraction.

Read the entire article at Nestlé is moving fast–southern Mainers need your help