Nestle Alters Water Plant Plans in US

Nestle Waters North America has announced that it would only build a smaller water bottling plant of 350,000 square feet in Northern California in place of the originally planned major project of one million square feet, according to the Associated Press.

The news agency has quoted David Palais, Northern California natural resource manager for Nestle, as saying that the original project is no more economical given the rising fuel and transportation costs. Moreover, Nestle’s existing plant in Denver and other facilities in the West would make the plant less necessary, Mr Palais has said.

Environmentalists have been opposing Nestle’s original plant plans since 2003 when the company signed an agreement with the McCloud Community Services District for drawing 521 million gallons of water a year by paying between $250,000 and $350,000.

With its changed plans, Nestle would need only 200 million gallons of water, Mr Palais has said.