Why did Nestle Waters leave McCloud ?

Sep 15

Why did Nestle Waters leave McCloud ?

As an employee at Nestle Waters North America I have been reading many of the posting which describe the reasons and rationale as to why we decided not to continue pursuing the building of a water bottling facility in the McCloud area of California. There have even been some people on the internet that have posted theories and speculation that somewhat surprise me.

What I have seen is that whether you are happy or disappointed that we decided to drop our proposal seems to be based on your perspective on a project that started way back in 2003. And honestly the comments all over the place are mixed.

So in an effort to promote the truth I wanted to provide to you a link to an open letter to the McCloud Community Services District and the McCloud Community written by the CEO of Nestle Waters North America - Kim Jeffery.

See the full article here

I feel after reading the letter he writes we've made a good decision for all those involved for all the right reasons.

Agree/Disagree? As always I love to hear your comments.

Filed under // Arrowhead Arrowhead Water Bottle Water Bottled Water McCloud Nestle Waters Spring Water

over 2 years ago StopNestleWaters.org responded:

I always get a little nervous when I see the word "truth" in relation to anyone's press materials.

For what it's worth, I believe that Mr. Jeffries' letter is largely true - that fuel costs and changing market conditions made the switch to a Sacramento plant largely seamless.

Still, it's far from the "whole" truth, and I think asking us to accept it as such is a little disingenuous.

I don't know which of the theories and speculation surprised you, but I'd guess you're referring to the "locals send Nestle packing" stories and posts.

You might feel that's not true, but I think it's an entirely factual statement to say that Nestle would be pumping, bottling and trucking water out of McCloud right now if a group of committed local residents hadn't challenged Nestle's first contract with the McCloud Services District in court.

That same group pointed out that Nestle's first environmental impact report was entirely bereft of flow studies downstream of the water extraction point, and therefore didn't measure a key environmental impact at all - which largely forced Nestle to abandon the first (and incomplete) EIR.

This is a simple truth.

I appreciate your willingness to entertain comments on your post, and I recognize I can't know your perspective on this issue. For example, I can't know if you experienced this whole process from a distance or from ground zero.

I've seen it unfold firsthand, and feel there are several other "truths" at work here that aren't mentioned in Mr. Jeffries' letter.

First, it's true that Nestle is leaving the tiny town of McCloud in a divided, polarized state. It's a painful thing to see neighbors (and even families) pitted against each other over this issue. Mr. Jeffries won't refer to it as such in his letter (why would he), but I feel it's part of a lingering reality about Nestle's impacts on small, rural communities.

For example, it's true that Nestle's own representative repeatedly demonized plant opponents by characterizing them as "wealthy, out-of-town (San Francisco) fly fishermen" or as non-contributing newcomers to the area - terms guaranteed to fire up an "us vs them" mentality in a small community.

It's also 100% true that Nestle repeatedly maintained they weren't going to interfere in the local election process (I'm referring to the 2006 elections), but then wrote a check for $2500 to the pro-Nestle slate of candidates the day before the election - in one fell swoop dwarfing the amount of money raised by all other candidates (both pro and con). This largely put the sword to Nestle's contention that it wasn't going to "interfere" in the election.

It's also "true" that Nestle's legal council did attempt to gain access to the private financial records of opponents of Nestle's bottling plant (some of whom were friends of mine). We can argue about the "truth" behind Nestle's motives in that instance, but from here, it looked a lot like legal intimidation.

The above are all verifiable facts, and all led to my decision to found a Web site that attempts to hold Nestle accountable for its actions in small, rural towns.

In the twilight between verifiable "fact" and what is "probably" true lies a whole raft of messiness on both sides. This hasn't been a pretty process, and while I hold Nestle 100% accountable for a fair amount of unsavory behavior, I also cringed at some of the wilder accusations leveled by opponents.

Nestle's CEO says the company is leaving because of market conditions and fuel costs. Opponents claim a victory, and suggest Nestle was sent packing by a ragtag group of citizens. And just to muddy things further, I've read press releases from national organizations suggesting greater involvement than seemed to be the case.

Where is the truth here?

Like always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but I know for a fact that Mr. Jeffries' letter - likely the product of a gifted PR department - is hardly a complete vision of the truth - especially once you consider the simple fact that a new contract with the town of McCloud had become a very, very uncertain thing.

Did local citizens send Nestle packing? Is the bottled water market taking a plunge (and affecting capacity decisions)? Are transportation costs up? Does Nestle have a long, long ways to go to actually become the "good" neighbor it says it is?

I believe all the above are true.

Why did Nestle Waters leave McCloud ?

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