City of Sacramento Responds to Questions on Nestlé's Water Use

By Dan Bacher | April 13, 2015 | Rhea Serran, Media and Communications for the City of Sacramento, on Friday, April 10, responded via...

By Dan Bacher | April 13, 2015 |

Rhea Serran, Media and Communications for the City of Sacramento, on Friday, April 10, responded via email to my questions about Nestlé's water bottling plant in Sacramento.

On March 20, environmental and human rights activists, holding plastic “torches” and “pitchforks,” formed human barricades at both entrances to the Nestlé Waters bottling plant in Sacramento at 5:00 a.m., effectively shutting down the company's operations for the day. The complete story is available here.  

The response has arrived a couple of weeks after I finished the article, so I couldn't include it in the original article. Here is the response:

Q: Do you know how much water Nestlé uses in Sacramento?
A: Below is Nestle’s statement on their water usage:

Q: How much do they pay for their water?
A: Nestle Waters, like any metered business or manufacturer in the City of Sacramento, pays the same rate for water like any customer (residential or commercial) at $0.9963 per 100 cubic feet. This rate resolution was passed by City Council. Nestle Waters, or any business or manufacturer in the City, does not have a special agreement or contract for water services. 

All city customers are expected to conserve water to help meet the governor’s mandate to conserve 25% over our 2013 water usage.   

Q: How do you respond to the requests of local activists that Nestle pay a commercial rate under a two tier level, or pay a tax on its profit?
A: Under the Governor’s  Executive Order, there is strong consideration of tiered rates, or some other form of conservation pricing.  Currently, there is no industrial rate for commercial or industrial water users.  All water customers pay the same rate.  

Q: What is the total amount of water used by city of Sacramento water users in acre feet - and what's the percentage Nestle's uses?
A: The overall water usage of all City customers is 31 billion gallons, of this, Nestle Waters uses approximately 51 million gallons per year which is .0016% of the City’s total water demand (Nestle provided their water usage data to be released). There are no water usage limitations for any water user. 
While the city is enforcing watering rules, customers including commercial and industrial customers are making personal decisions about how to change their usage inside their homes and businesses. The city is here to help them if we are asked through our water wise house and business call programs, but many are making these process improvements on their own. 

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5 comments

Warren Buffett said...

I liked it better when they stuck to candy bars!

SteveB6509 said...

I'm a little confused. It's OK for people to drink out of the tap but if a company takes the water, bottles it, and sells it for someone to drink that is more wasteful. This is equivalent to the loony science that the Right Wing wackos support. In fact, if you consider that any people in the area drink well water, this allows those people to use less water by drinking river water.

So, I would ask those who are against Nestle - what kind of water is OK to drink?

Warren Buffett said...

SteveB, I think the issue is Nestle is drawing from the regional supply of water and shipping it around the world. If Nestle were to cease operations for example, that amount of water would cease to be pumped from our region--hence a net gain in supply. Nestle is not depriving anyone of water, merely adding to the shortage.

Capt. Benjamin Willard said...

Mr. Steve B6509,

This story may better than Mr. Bacher's story why tapping water for bottling is, well, not a good thing for us California water ratepayers.

http://news.yahoo.com/arrowheads-permit-pump-california-spring-water-expired-decades-201003194.html

I look forward to a civil dialogue on this subject.

Anonymous said...

SteveB6509 said...

"I'm a little confused."

It appears that is the case.....

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