well who exactly is taking our water at
a monumental discount right now in a
small northern Michigan town Nestle
water a Swedish owned company is pumping
out hundreds of gallons of water every
minute from a well the water is bottled
and sold for profit and the state
charges Nestle $200 a year yeah
those numbers have some saying
Michiganders are being ripped off and
our most valuable resource being
depleted for basically nothing tonight
our consumer investigator hank
winchester takes you inside the
controversy and Kimberly Devin you're
gonna find out exactly why so many
people are angry you know when you think
Pure Michigan you think of our beautiful
Great Lakes like Lake Michigan that you
see here just over my shoulder what's
very interesting is that before the DEQ
made the final decision they allowed
public comment more than 80,000
Michiganders said no way this is a bad
deal about 70 people said yes move
forward just 70 people yet somehow the
DEQ said yes Nestle make your way into
Michigan and now some are wondering why
it's happening here every day every
minute and when people learn what's
happening they just can't believe I'm
not happy about I don't think it's fair
it's all taking place here in this small
northern Michigan town in Osceola County
Nestle a swiss company pumping out 1.1
million gallons of water every day they
are literally taking millions and
millions of gallons of great lakes water
in this case out of the Lake Michigan
aquifer and bottling it and who knows
where they're selling it Candice Miller
current Macomb County Public Works
Commissioner previous congresswoman and
former Secretary of State is outraged by
the sweet Nestle deal we need to be very
careful about who were allowing to just
take it if you're in Texas you think the
state of Texas lets somebody who has oil
under their land just take it for free
Miller like many Michiganders can't get
past the numbers 400 gallons every
minute the potential of profit for the
form-based company hundreds of millions
of dollars every year
and $200 what Nestle is required to pay
the state of Michigan for permit
approval once a year it's just crazy to
me what is happening here with so many
opposed to the Nestle water pull how did
the DEQ give it the stamp of approval
the DEQ saying the review process the
most extensive analysis of any water
withdrawal in Michigan history it all
comes down to a statute and according to
the current law
Nestle meets the qualifications this was
some rule that was promulgated by
bureaucrats and they are appointed by
the way by elected officials so we just
follow the chain of command that chain
raising questions of its own at the very
top governor Snyder he appoints the
director of the DEQ who is Heidi
greather she was brought in after the
Flint water crisis was exposed
Snyder's chief of staff during that
crisis then it's much more who in 2015
proposed spending 250,000 dollars to buy
Nestle water for Flint around the same
time much mores wife Deborah worked as a
lobbyist and PR consultant for you
guessed it
Nestle she denied my request for an
interview but told me that she cut her
ties with Nestle in 2015
Nestle's for instance has increased
their permit from a hundred and fifty
million gallons daily to two hundred
fifty million gallons and now four
hundred million gallons when's it gonna
stop state Rep Peter Lucido of Shelby
Township proposing legislation tacking a
five cent per gallon fee on bottled
water it could cost Nestle 20 million
they ship a lot of this water out of
state so it doesn't even come to
Michiganders so how is this Pure
Michigan
I think it's pure something else aside
from the financial impact there's also
growing concern about the environmental
impact eventually you start to have
water diverting from a ecosystem that
may impede upon farmers farmer in their
land or just the natural flow of water
back out here live on Lake Michigan
Lucido hoping that legislation moves
forward and quickly I want to share a
part of a statement we received from
Nestle with you it reads we have made a
long-term investment in Michigan and we
take great care to operate in a
responsible
and sustainable way to preserve and
protect our shared water resources and
the surrounding environment for
generations to come the full statement
at clickondetroit.com we put a request
in for Nestle for an interview denied
our request of the DEQ denied our
request of the governor denied
although the governor's team did share
statements in to the governor in light
of these regulations and this
controversial decision would be willing
to work with legislative partners to
review any changes sent to him if they
determine changes need to be made we're
live here tonight in Benton Harbor Hank
Winchester back to you well Hank
speaking of which then talk about the
push now to keep other companies from
doing the same thing and Devin there are
legal challenges being made not only to
what's going on right now with Nestle
but also legal challenges to force
politicians to make sure that this
doesn't happen again as you know the
legal process can take some time about
the groundwork being laid right now yeah
all right Hank Nestle claims it is
helping Michigan by creating jobs but as
you heard others believe the company is
essentially taking our water for profit
paying only $2 we want to know what you
think is the Nestle deal good or bad for
the state of Michigan take our pull and
share this story on clickondetroit.com
quick bit of housekeeping