this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

California has ordered the company that owns Arrowhead bottled water to stop using some of the natural springs it has utilized for more than a century, following a years-long campaign by environmentalists to stop the operation.

Regulators on Tuesday voted to significantly reduce how much water BlueTriton – the owner of the Arrowhead brand – can take from public lands in the San Bernardino mountains. The ruling is a victory for community groups who have said for years that the bottled water firm has drained an important creek that serves as a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.

Arrowhead bottled water traces its roots to a hotel at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains that first opened in 1885 and began selling bottled spring water from its basement in 1906. But environmental and community groups say the company has never had permission to take water from the springs in the San Bernardino national forest.

The state water resources control board agreed that BlueTriton does not have permission to use the water and ordered the company to stop. The order does not ban the company from taking any water from the mountain, but it significantly reduces how much it can take.

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[–] zepheriths 170 points 1 year ago (3 children)

"Blue triton" that's interesting let look into that.... it's Nestle

[–] NocturnalMorning 57 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I guess Nestlé has such a reputation they wanted to rebrand.

[–] Bluefruit 32 points 1 year ago (4 children)

You see it all the time.

Facebook became "Meta" ,Comcast became "Xfinity", and I'm sure theres plenty of other examples.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Rapeseed oil became Canola oil.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Im gonna make custom stickers and annoy the Aldi employees.

[–] FlyingSquid 3 points 1 year ago

Still called that in the UK.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Google became Alphabet

[–] AngryCommieKender 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Blackwater became Xe Services became Academi became Constellis Holdings

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

They've already removed their logo from several products (ex: Nestlé Pure Life is just Pure Life now). Now you have to check back of the label more closely to avoid them. But rebranding would make that more difficult. Instead of actually stopping the human rights violations they rather just do this. It's disgusting.

[–] Son_of_dad 9 points 1 year ago

It might just be that Nestle is made up of like hundreds of companies. That's why Nestle bans don't work, cause it's all Nestle

[–] Foggyfroggy 13 points 1 year ago

A megacorporation by any other name still smells the same. And Nestle stinks.

[–] girlfreddy 12 points 1 year ago

Nestle is the biggest water thief in North America, even though they recently sold both their US/Can regular water bottling business.

Nestle did keep their premium water bottling sites tho.

[–] BeautifulMind 109 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's wild to me that public resources like water are given, not sold, to corporations like Nestle- who then go on to lobby for less public spending on water systems, and who mass-produce those shitty bottles that end up everywhere.

Charge them royalties for taking water from springs, make it cheaper for nestle to buy water from a utility.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Charge them an extremely high plastic tax that makes it an unviable business model too. Suddenly they'll find alternatives real quick!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Even if they did - they're still destroying the water table in your local environment. Then there's the climate disaster of transporting water thousands of miles for.... What?

[–] Son_of_dad 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's what I was searching for in the article, how much this company has paid for 100 years worth of water. It's insane that they don't pay at all.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Guess I'm just old but I still think it's insane that anyone pays for water at all. I 40yrs people will think it's nuts to get free breathable air.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In 40yrs people will think it's nuts to get free breathable air.

[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

BlueTriton (depressingly corporate garbage name, btw) is still basically Nestlé.

Reporting shouldn't be allowed to further obfuscate the corporate hierarchies involved in fucking up everyone's lives. If reporters included all the arcane structural and legal bullshit that corporations pull in order to escape even the slightest sliver of responsibility (and spin public perception), the average reader would be much more aware of the corporatocratic hellscape in which we live.

Edit: added a bit because it's technically not Nestlé but that's the whole problem as the technicality is about as far as it goes...

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

there is a genuine need, and it has its place, but that place is not being mass-produced and sold for ridiculous profits at the expense of the environment.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I mean, it's a microcosm but I remember a friend in uni refusing to drink tap or Brita water. He'd just keep cases and cases of water by his mini fridge and just plow threw them.

I got upset with my sister in law because she'll buy bottled water when I had a water filter in our fridge. Hell, you can boil it if you're really uncertain. She said there was stuff about chemicals and I said the plastic for the water probably isn't any better for you.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But taking a shower in chemicals are okay? The mental gymnastics of some people.

Tap water is also more regulated than bottled water too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm not defending bottled water, but in regards to the shower argument, there's a reason things are rated for topical use vs food grade

the better argument is someone drinking bottled water while using tap water to wash their foods

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tap water is regulated by the EPA, and bottled water is regulated by thr FDA (in the states). Both have to make it drinkable. EPA forces types of contaminents, intended use (residential water is designed to be drinkable), and have all water quality reports public after treating said water. EPA however doesnt regulate the pipes, so the flynt michigan sotuation came out due to that.

Bottled water tests water at source and before product. Bottled water must label the source where the water came from, which includes tap...

Unless the person drinking only bottled water actively reads the label to know what the source water is, its a very popr argument to avoid tap when the attempt to avoid it is half baked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think you misunderstood what I said, I'm agreeing with you on the mental gymnastics, but the argument you put out wasn't exactly the best when given to the PoV of the gymnast; they're avoiding ingesting tap water in favor of bottled, but they ingest it regardless, unless they wash everything with bottled water like a very crazy person

and didn't expect to respond again about this crazy hypothetical person that lives rent free in both our minds, but I'm going to evict that person right now for my own sanity

[–] BeautifulMind 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Marketing is a hell of a drug I guess

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tricked people into buying water they can get for near free from the tap

Possibly the biggest grift in history

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Think of how many bottles of water you can get for $10. Anything from event prices to Costco prices, doesn’t matter.

For $10 I get about a thousand gallons of tap water. I have a back yard pond, so I think in terms of bulk quantity cost of tap water, lol. Technically the sewer charge is about another $10 for that same amount of water.

The water is pretty good, and tastes just about perfect to me once it’s run through the cheap filter in our refrigerator.

IMO the worst part of bottled water is the plastic, plus the thought of shipping literal water around the country/world.

[–] eek2121 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We could use something other than plastic. We should be banning the use of single-use plastics everywhere.

[–] afraid_of_zombies 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I am sure emergency workers would rather not have to haul around water in glass containers after a disaster. If you have another material that is cheap, can be injected molded, bends instead of breaking, only impacts humans under mass exposure, and lightweight plesse let people know.

[–] eek2121 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aluminum is lighter than glass. Cardboard can be treated so that it holds fluid as well (and can still be made recyclable)

Regardless, plastic requires fossil fuels to make. It needs to go.

I have aluminum cups that can be (hand) washed/reused/recycled. Most plastic cannot be recycled

The tech is there, companies just need to be incentivized to use it.

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 1 year ago

I don't know how the chemistry works, but we had aluminum cups and they were somehow taking the calcium in the water and concentrating it into little deposits on the bottom of the cup which were hard to get off. I switched back to glass.

[–] afraid_of_zombies 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Alright so go and do it. I have done some plastic extruder machine control systems. Let me know when you need my help. It is pretty crazy to me that there is this really simple solution that no one on earth is trying and there is a shitton of money to be made but it is possible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Are you missing the point that plastic is used because it is cheaper, not because it is better for humanity and nature?

It's like saying "so go ahead and fix the climate, if fixing the climate is so good for us". What exactly do you think the problem is?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Bronze, but it aint cheap.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thermoses are commonly used, and they even have a vacuum inside!

If you don't care about keeping the internal temperature, there's a lot of options for good reusable water containers. Why should we even use disposable containers if we can avoid it?

[–] afraid_of_zombies 0 points 1 year ago

I have a glass water bottle I use daily. I am talking about a specific use case.

[–] iquanyin 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] afraid_of_zombies 0 points 1 year ago

It is brittle right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I smell lawsuit. Good news, but precedent is strong for a successful lawsuit.