Dear Editor,
Re ‘Nestle purchases Middlebrook well property’, Aug 19:
We couldn’t help noticing the irony that directly opposite the continuation of this article on page 42, was another entitled ‘Water users asked to cut consumption by 20% throughout watershed’. How does this add up? On one hand, Nestle is asking for a permit to remove an additional 1.6 million litres of water per day (over and above the 4 million they are already taking from other sites in Wellington Co.), while on the other hand, all users throughout the watershed are being asked to reduce consumption. Are residents expected to reduce water usage, then buy it back from Nestle one plastic bottle at a time? Our concern is that environmental issues will be ignored when a large corporation stands to make big profits. Nestle plans to conduct a test of the impact on the watershed. We will be very interested in learning who the ‘independent third party’ is who will be reviewing the results of this test.
Carole Pines and Bob Mino