Thanks to a ruling from Judge Dan Pulter, Nestle will be able to increase the amount of groundwater it pulls from Michigan to sell its bottled water brand, Ice Mountain, MLive reported.
The state administrative judge affirmed the permit for Nestle, ruling that it can move forward and pull 576,000 gallons of groundwater a day. Judge Pulter found that extracting the water from two streams in Osceola County won’t harm the area.
The decision also comes after the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians tried to stop the permit from going through back in 2018.
But Nestle isn’t completely in the clear. It still has to fulfill watershed monitoring regulations listed by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes Energy (EGLE).
Nestle said in a statement, according to MLive, "We firmly believe that the EGLE’s decision to approve our permit application was appropriate, as it carefully reviewed and considered our permit application in what it called 'the most extensive analysis of any water withdrawal in Michigan history'."
Alerts Sign-up