Florida considers charging bottlers for state's water

[babylonsister]

Florida considers charging bottlers for state's water
Gov. Charlie Crist and some state lawmakers say it's time to stop the flow of free water to Florida's bottling companies.

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau


LEE, Fla. -- In a rural North Florida town where the water tower bears the motto ''Tiny but Proud,'' residents have a big secret: They give the cold, clear spring water that bubbles up from the aquifer below their soil to the nation's largest bottled water company -- for free.

Every day, Nestle Waters of North America sucks up an estimated 500,000 gallons from Madison Blue Springs, a limestone basin one mile north of town. It pipes the 70-degree water to its massive bottling plant and distribution center, fills 102,000 plastic containers an hour, pastes on Deer Park or Zephyrhills labels, boxes it up and ships half of it out of state.

The cost to the company for the water: a one-time $150 local water permit. Like 22 other bottled water companies in Florida, including giants Coca Cola and Pepsi Co., Nestle's profit is 10 to 100 times the cost of each bottle. And the payment to Florida? Not a dime.

Gov. Charlie Crist wants to change that. He is proposing a 6-cents-a-gallon state tax on water used for commercial water-bottling purposes.

''It's a resource of the state and if you're going to withdraw it for a profit, we should charge you for that use,'' said Mike Sole, secretary of the Department of Environmental Resources, which has been developing the governor's proposal for the past six months.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/928550.html

[derby378]

1. Isn't this setting a dangerous precedent?

Crist's plan appears to treat water as a commodity, not as a basic human right.

[KansDem]

4. It appears the bottlers don't consider it a "basic human right."

Every day, Nestle Waters of North America sucks up an estimated 500,000 gallons from Madison Blue Springs, a limestone basin one mile north of town. It pipes the 70-degree water to its massive bottling plant and distribution center, fills 102,000 plastic containers an hour, pastes on Deer Park or Zephyrhills labels, boxes it up and ships half of it out of state.

The cost to the company for the water: a one-time $150 local water permit. Like 22 other bottled water companies in Florida, including giants Coca Cola and Pepsi Co., Nestle's profit is 10 to 100 times the cost of each bottle. And the payment to Florida? Not a dime.

[soothsayer]

5. yup. some places already want to charge folks for using their own well water.

water wars are going to be ugly, which is why monsanto has been buying up water rights all over the globe, and even bush' s paraguay joint has all kinds of water sources doesn't it?

[Still Sensible]

6. Not at all. Homeowners across the country pay a water bill

every month. It appears to me that Crist is protecting the resources of his state. At the very least, the companies should have to pay at the rate homeowners in Florida pay for water IMO. They shouldn't just pay $150 for a permit and then take all the water they want for free.

[derby378]

13. You pay a water bill only if you access municipal resources

Granted, most of us do. But if you dig a well on your own homestead, no bill needed.

[Still Sensible]

14. And therein lies the catch. If this were a homestead issue

I would be four square behind the homeowner... but for a business to take the same position, resulting in the exploitation of a resource where the only cost is a $150 permit, I think that's wrong and the governor is right on this one. And he can pursue that position while in no way infringing on private citizens' homestead rights. If the homeowner next door wants to get a $150 permit and put in his own well, great. If that homeowner wants to sell that water to a commercial enterprise they should have to pay some kind of a tax to do so IMO.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. He's not charging the public, he's charging the bottlers.

And given that a good filter on the tap does just as much for water purity as any bottled water does at a fraction of the cost, there's no real downside to the public here.

If the bottlers cry poor and jack up the prices, let them do it and then go out of business. People will just drink filtered water from the tap as they should have already been doing. Once the bottlers go out of business, it leaves Florida's springs alone.

Crist is doing the right thing here. Don't be distracted by the "R" after his name....thankfully, Crist has something of a conscience unlike most Republicans.

[GreenTea]

2. Sounds like a republican (as Arnold has in CA) learned something about the greedy corporations

He better watch his back because his fellow corporate republicans don't believe corporations should have to pay for any public resources or pay taxes on it....Republicans believe that they shouldn't have to pay the American people for making huge profits on public water or our public air waves or on oil, that belongs to all the people, if it's on public lands, airways or waterways....Greedy fucking republican corporations!

[peacetalksforall]

3. I had no idea they got it for nothing. Wonder if that is true for Arkansas, Poland,

Italy, New Zealand, etc.?

[Hestia]

9. Well, kinda sorta for Arkansas - Mtn Valley Water owns their own town

and access to Fountain Lake area, which is where the water is bottled. But, if you go to downtown Hot Springs, you can get all the water you want for free from the hot spring fountains in the park area. Just bring your bottles, but not plastic, since the water comes out at about 140 degrees.

I have no idea where Clear Mtn gets their water.

[Dappleganger]

7. They should treat it like oil...

It's a necessary commodity and if a corporation is making money by depleting our aquifer they should pay for it.

[seemslikeadream]

8. They are getting the water for free!!!!

and then selling it?

[babylonsister]

10. Yup. And Florida is broke enough to rethink it. nt

[noiretextatique]

11. trickle down idiocy at its finest

giving away public resources to create private profit.

[onethatcares]

15. wow, goodtime charlie is doing something that's really gonna

tick off the repukes in this state. I'm amazed that he's proposing this but I back him all the way.