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Water Fight Resumes in Southern Maine

April 15, 2009 - NEWFIELD -- A battle fought in Shapleigh and Newfield by a local opposition group has been won with passage of a rights-based water extraction ordinance, but the war over water continues for the small group of protesters.

In the lead-up to the April 23 annual shareholders’ meeting of Nestlé Waters – the company the owns Poland Spring – in Greenwich, Conn., members of Protect Our Water & Wildlife Resources took part in a national campaign called Think Outside the Bottle. The campaign used the week of April Fool's Day to call on the Nestle corporation to “stop fooling with community water supplies.”

Members of Protect Our Water & Wildlife Resources staged a protest against Nestlé Waters April 4 at the Wildlife Management Area on Route 11 in Newfield. Holding protest signs in front of a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife sign, protesters poured Poland Spring water on the ground. They also took the occasion to speak out against the pollution caused by empty plastic water bottles worldwide.

Although the grassroots group successfully campaigned to keep Poland Spring from tapping into an aquifer that straddles the towns of Newfield and Shapleigh, a dozen test wells remain on the Vernon Walker Wildlife Management Area in the two towns. The group also wants those wells removed.

"Across North America, the world’s largest food and beverage corporation, Nestlé, is staking claim to community water resources," said group member Shelly Gobeille in a prepared release. "Nestlé’s practices are raising serious questions about who should be allowed to control water, our most essential resource, and to what end."

Gobeille said she and other members of Protect Our Water & Wildlife Resources plan to travel to Greenwich April 23 to protest during the Nestle shareholders' meeting.

By Ann Fisher
Reporter – The Reporter , April 11, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Sanford


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