Nestlé bid to pump 2.1M litres of Michigan groundwater a day blocked by municipality

A Michigan township has temporarily blocked Nestlé’s attempt to pump millions of litres of groundwater for bottled water — the latest in a trend of municipalities engaged in legal battles with the world’s largest food and beverage company.

Nestlé is seeking to build a pipeline booster pumping station near Evart, Mich., in an effort to supply more water to its plant in Standwood, more than 50 kilometres away.

The added capacity provided by the proposed booster pump would make it possible for Nestlé to extract an estimated 1,500 litres of groundwater per minute, representing more than 4.2 million bottles of water in a 24-hour period. That’s equal to 794 million litres of water annually.

“Just because we’re putting in the application for 400 [gallons] doesn’t mean it’s going to run at 400 gallons per minute most of the time,” Nelson Switzer, Nestlé Waters’ chief sustainability officer told the Stamford Advocate.

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