More Water Wars

No, I'm not talking about the fucking non-stop parade of crappy weather that is getting me sopping wet and giving me a headache.

I'm talking about more of your precious resources getting sold back to you.

The fine entrepreneurs at Nestle have gotten permission to take spring water from the Madison Blue Spring in Madison Blue Spring State Park (that's in Florida, go look it up). The previous owner of the land had been granted a permit to bottle in 1998, which was never used.

Now, of course there was some political wrangling, some promises of economic benefits and a little bit of hand wringing from greener parties. You can read it yourself. I'll just say it is the same story that has been told in most of these situations. Nestle made a solid, economically sound proposal and short-sighted (for some good and some bad reasons) bureaucrats pushed the deal through. Now, all the promises are water under the bridge and Nestle has excuses for not measuring up to the originally stated goals.

That's typical. Not truly evil, as the company is a fluid organism and it should be expected that times change. However, the bottling of your own water has to concern you regardless of whether Nestle fell 100 jobs short of their promise of 300 or if the corporation is getting tax refunds from the state. Not to mention the spring is in the middle of a serious drought.

Nestle likes to point out that since nobody there is being charged for water (other than, of course, the cost of property ownership), they shouldn't be singled out. Once again, pretty good logic. Where's my wallet, I just might get me a case of that snake oil.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, love they neighbor (but not his wife!) and drink some fucking tap water.