BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/5465563

BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

California has ordered the company that owns Arrowhead bottled water to stop using some of the natural springs it has utilized for more than a century, following a years-long campaign by environmentalists to stop the operation.

Regulators on Tuesday voted to significantly reduce how much water BlueTriton – the owner of the Arrowhead brand – can take from public lands in the San Bernardino mountains. The ruling is a victory for community groups who have said for years that the bottled water firm has drained an important creek that serves as a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.

Arrowhead bottled water traces its roots to a hotel at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains that first opened in 1885 and began selling bottled spring water from its basement in 1906. But environmental and community groups say the company has never had permission to take water from the springs in the San Bernardino national forest.

The state water resources control board agreed that BlueTriton does not have permission to use the water and ordered the company to stop. The order does not ban the company from taking any water from the mountain, but it significantly reduces how much it can take.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Regulators on Tuesday voted to significantly reduce how much water BlueTriton – the owner of the Arrowhead brand – can take from public lands in the San Bernardino mountains.

    The ruling is a victory for community groups who have said for years that the bottled water firm has drained an important creek that serves as a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.

    But environmental and community groups say the company has never had permission to take water from the springs in the San Bernardino national forest.

    In a statement after the vote, BlueTriton Brandsindicated it would sue to block the order, vowing to “vigorously defend our water rights through available legal process”.

    Lawyers for BlueTriton had argued there was ample evidence the company and its predecessors have been using the springs since well before 1914, when the state began regulating how people can use water.

    Amanda Frye, a resident of Redlands who has spent countless hours combing through documents to investigate the case, said when hiking the mountain, she can see BlueTriton’s pipes gushing with water as they run along the dry bed of Strawberry Creek.

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