[Dryerase] Water Rights Activists Blockade Ice Mountain Bottling Plant

[Ttrickykid at aol.com]

see the article with images and links at http://michiganimc.org/feature/display/26/index.php

Water Rights Activists Blockade Ice Mountain Bottling Plant
by Cyclone 
for the Michigan Indymedia Center <michiganimc.org>

Water rights activists blockaded the Ice Mountain bottling plant in Stanwood, Michigan Monday, shutting down truck traffic to and from the plant for over seven hours. 

At around 6:30 a.m. a group of seven protestors locked themselves together in the plant's shipping entrance, holding the position until mid-afternoon. A support rally numbering 60 joined the blockade group at around 8 a.m., staging pickets at the east and west entrances. 

The blockade is the latest in a series of actions by citizens looking to defend the state's water resources from an attempted takeover by the Ice Mountain Spring Water Company, a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America. In May 2002 the company began production at its new $100 million bottling facility, pumping at rates which could top 200 million gallons in water withdrawals per year. 

Protesters see the project as a dangerous step toward privatization of the world's water resources and a serious threat to "water democracy". 

"This project flies in the face of almost every legal and social standard that we have regarding water use," said Louis Blouin, one of the blockaders. "Historically and globally, water has been viewed as a sacred resource, common to all, and something which--because of its essential nature--everyone is entitled to." 

"Now because water has become such a scarce resource globally, corporations are actually trying to profit off one of the most basic of human needs," Blouin said. "If we fail to act now, we are not far from a world in which the rich have a right to clean water and the poor do not." 

The state's permitting process has also drawn protests. In August 2001, upper level officials in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality sanctioned the project after at least one DEQ agent refused to sign the permit "on principle". 

On another occasion, County officials changed zoning regulations in order to illegally maneuver around a referendum vote on the project. At public hearings, citizens of the affected counties voiced opposition to the project by a margin of nearly 9 to 1. A new referendum is now scheduled for August 6. 

State tax abatements to Ice Mountain, totaling almost $10 million over the next decade, have also raised eyebrows. 

"Thanks to the state's handling of this issue, we are now in a position where we'll actually be paying a corporation to take our water away," Blouin said. "No citizen has a right to take and sell millions of gallons of water from shared, public waterways. But the state is trying to tell us that a corporation does. It's simply absurd." 

Legal battles are raging as well. In August 2001, a separate citizen group filed a lawsuit against Ice Mountain in circuit court, contending the project violates Michigan's public trust principles governing the use of water from the Great Lakes Basin. 

"Under public trust principles of Michigan law, the citizens of Michigan--not corporations--have the primary right to use the water of Michigan's lakes and streams," said Terry Swier, president of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, the group bringing the suit. 

"Public trust protects the citizens' rights in these waters for fishing, boating, swimming, and survival. Pure water for pure profit violates the public trust and robs Michigan of its most vital heritage." 

"We firmly believe that Michigan and its citizens have a distinct say in who can take the waters of the State and divert them for sale for private convenience," Swier said. 

In addition to its significance for state law, the case may have huge implications for how water is defined in international trade agreements. 

"Water is already officially designated as a commodity according to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)," said Holly Wren Spaulding, an independent journalist and organizer with the Sweetwater Alliance. 

Spaulding says that a sanctioning of the Ice Mountain proposal by the State would amount to another step in the direction toward defining water--both legally and culturally--as a commodity rather than a public good. 

According to Spaulding, the Ice Mountain situation in Mecosta County could also be one of the first real tests of whether a state law guaranteeing public ownership of resources can be challenged by an international trade body inclined to view resources as private. 

Spaulding also points out that NAFTA and WTO rules could prevent Michigan from denying other bottling corporations access to water once Ice Mountain has its foot in the door. 

"So-called 'Preferential Treatment' guidelines in these trade agreements basically say that if one corporation--whether indigenous or foreign--gains access to an area to extract a resource, no restrictions can be made on anyone else who might wish to do the same because it would not be fair," Spaulding said. 

"If future investors in the region were to be turned away for some reason, the state, and in some cases the federal government, would be liable for fines to be paid to the corporation for its 'loss of potential profits'." 

Direct actions like Monday's are now being viewed as key tools for beating back Ice Mountain and restoring public control of the State's water resources. 

"We have the laws on the books now that would have stopped this project long ago. What we don't have is a government with the will to enforce them," said Blouin. "Stopping this water privatization scheme and restoring water democracy will now require action by citizens themselves." 

Protestors also stressed the global significance of their actions. 

"Today we are here in solidarity with all those around the world who have fought and won struggles for water democracy," Blouin said. "We put our bodies on the line today, but in Cochabamba, Bolivia, people actually gave their lives defeating one of the harshest water privatization schemes ever." 

Following the implementation of a project engineered by the World Bank and Bechtel Corporation, water bills for people in Cochabamba soared over 40 percent and citizens were actually outlawed from collecting rainwater. After days of protests and direct actions, the Bolivian government terminated the contract and Bechtel was forced to leave the country. 

"We cannot let this happen in North America knowing the sacrifice others have made elsewhere." Blouin said. "As guardians of the Great Lakes Basin--one fifth of the world's fresh water--we must think about strengthening both our commitment and our resolve," he said. "The consequences for us not doing so are almost too grave to imagine." 

To read more about the struggle against Ice Mountain in Michigan, visit the Sweetwater Alliance website at www.waterissweet.org or Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation at www.savemiwater.org.