Nestlé Waters Canada is not seeking an increase in the amount of water it extracts from its primary well, but the company is looking for a 10-year renewal of its current permit.
Director of Corporate Affairs John Challinor confirmed last week Nestlé is seeking a decade-long renewal of its permit to extract up to 2,500 litres per minute, which works out to about 3.6 million litres per day.
“We’re not asking for more water,” Challinor said, adding the company on average extracts just 60% of the maximum allowed, or about 1,500 litres per minute and 2.16 million litres per day.
He hopes to hear back from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) by May, although he stressed that is up to the ministry.
In a letter to Puslinch Township, Challinor said water taking at Nestlé’s primary well in Aberfoyle, which has been in operation since 1980, “represents about 0.0053% of [the amount available] for taking in the in the watershed, according to the Grand River Conservation Authority.”
He also added, “No resident or business within the zone of influence of [the well] has ever been impacted by water taking from this source.”
However, that is not stopping the Wellington Water Watchers, a Guelph-based advocacy group, from expressing concern about the renewal application.
“A ten-year permit is not acceptable at all … We have a lot of concerns,” Wellington Water Watchers member Mike Nagy said on Tuesday.
The Water Watchers acknowledge Nestlé Waters has complied with the MOE’s water conservation plan in its application, but the group is taking issue with what they claim is a lack of “details” and “targets” included in the application. The group also says Nestlé is attempting to “lock in” the permit before the expected implementation of stricter regulations from the province.
“At the very most, the maximum volume of water allowed in any new Nestlé agreement should be no more than the maximum taken in 2010, which was 1.6 million litres per day,” Nagy said. “And then it should be reduced by at least 1.56 percent per year after that, consistent with Ontario’s initiatives on sustainable water use.”
Wellington Water Watchers have asked the MOE to extend the deadline for the commenting period on the Nestlé permit application – from March 5 to April 11 – “to allow the proper amount of time for the public to comment,” Nagy explained.
“This is far too long and way too much,” Nagy concluded of the Nestlé Waters application.
In 2008, the ministry granted Nestlé Waters a two year renewal, even though the company was seeking a five-year term.
In addition, the MOE also imposed on Nestlé “strict conditions to protect existing water users and the natural environment.”
