In the next 30 days, the Forest Service will announce whether or not it will issue a new permit to Nestlé. If a new permit is granted, this corporation will continue profiting from our water and our public land. While Nestlé pays only $624 a year for our water, we get the bill for land restoration, fire fighting, and endangered species protection.

If the permit moves forward, the Forest Service and Nestlé will be ignoring the local community and tens of thousands of others around the U.S. that have demanded the end of this destructive profiteering. 

Nestlé Waters is the largest water bottling company in the world. For the past 30 years it has been taking water from a small stream in the San Bernardino National Forest under an expired Forest Service special use permit. Our lawsuit against the Forest Service has forced a reexamination of Nestlé's operation and a new permitting process.

In December, the California Water Board staff ruled that Nestlé doesn't even have a valid right to the vast majority of water that it has been bottling from these public lands. Despite being told by the state to immediately end its unauthorized use of our water, Nestlé's operations have continued unabated, with the Forest Service’s blessing.

It's time the Forest Service fulfills its duty and mission to the people: to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests to meet the needs of present and future generations. Until the Forest Service stops Nestle’s unlawful and damaging water grab, they are failing that mission.

We're telling Vicki Christiansen, Interim Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and Dan Jiron, Acting Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that enough is enough: this water belongs in the forest, not in Nestlé's plastic Arrowhead water bottles. Nestlé has no right to this precious resource, and it is the Forest Service's job to respect California laws and put a stop to Nestle’s illegal water removal. Do not give Nestlé a new permit!