Nestlé has secured the rights to the groundwater under the town of Fryeburg in Maine for up to 45 years, thanks to the efforts of the state’s Tea Party Republican Governor Paul LePage. LePage helped Nestlé secure a contract giving Poland Springs, a Nestlé subsidiary, permission to take the small town of Fryeburg’s groundwater for the next 25 years for their own profit, in a deal that could stretch to 45 years due to built-in extensions. Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court quashed efforts bu activists to appeal the deal by ruling in favor of Nestle on Thursday. US Uncut reports: There has never been a contract that ties up local water resources for such a long period of time in American history. Water activists worry that this could set a precedent for future corporate attempts to take water from rural towns for extended periods of time. Nickie Sekera, the co-founder of Community Water Justice, talked to US Uncut today about the water deal. “Contracts of this length come with an unprecedented concern in our current times,” she said. “With the changes we are witnessing in our climate, increasing global water insecurity, and industry polluting freshwater resources with little accountability… corporate control over drinking water resources [...]
