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A water fight in Maine
These metal fingers are the source of a fierce debate that has gripped this small town and others across Maine, forcing residents to choose between Poland Spring - a company with a century-old history in the state - and their newfound environmental and social sensibilities.
For more than a hundred years, the company has drawn waters from Maine springs and marketed it to the world as just possibly "the best tasting water on earth." But now McMahon and others are part of a growing movement raising questions about the homegrown company's corporate parents - Nestlé Waters North America purchased it in 1992 - and the very concept of bottled water, which uses plastic and oil to deliver a product that many can get from their faucet.
As the company seeks to tap new springs, a number of towns have begun to push back against locating water-extraction sites on their land, forcing this quintessentially Maine company to consider the once unthinkable: looking to other states for its water.
"We're a Maine company," said Mark Dubois, Poland Spring's natural resource director. But if the industry continues to grow, he said, the company is going to need more water.
"We might have to force our hand," he said.
Later this month, Shapleigh residents will decide whether to put a moratorium on water pumping, which would freeze Poland Spring's plans to test the town's water. In Ogunquit, selectmen are considering a citizen petition they received in opposition to water extraction. Nearby Wells residents are set to vote in November on a 180-day moratorium, much like the one in Shapleigh, while they prepare an ordinance that would set ground rules for pumping.
But the issue is greater than extraction alone. Poland Spring, the nation's third-leading brand of bottled water, after Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo, is facing mounting pressure on other fronts.
Take Back the Tap, a national organization that encourages people to eschew bottled water, recently launched a campaign in Portland.
Activists in Kennebunk are boycotting Poland Spring in protest against Nestlé, after the company tried to purchase water from the local water district for bottling. At a war protest in early August, organizer Jamilla El-Shafei asked participants not to bring Poland Spring water.
"There is definitely a movement afoot," El-Shafei said. "They're trying to corporatize and commodify water. . . . Water should be in the public trust."
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Nestle' like other multinational companies doesn't care one whit for the citizens of these towns. All they care about is profit. They place their pipes in the ground that does not belong to them and suck the lifeblood out of it to make their wallets fatter. It is great to see residents of these towns standing up to them as they think because they are corporations their size entitles them to anything they can buy off. I am sure the vote to take place there will be close, and actually, I am wondering who they may be applying pressure to to allow Nestle' to win this vote. Of course, if they are actually frozen out of Maine there are other states they will target. And people will have to stand up to them anywhere they go in this country. We can no longer afford to give our precious water away to hungry greedy companies considering that water is becoming more precious to us in many areas of this country due to drought and waste and the fact that it is a public trust not a private commodity. These metal fingers are the source of a fierce debate that has gripped this small town and others across Maine, forcing residents to c... more -
Human viruses in deep groundwater threaten drinking water supplies
Researchers testing deep aquifers used for drinking water found human viruses, challenging the assumption that these crucial water supplies are protected from surface contamination.
Samples from three public water supply wells that draw from a 240-foot deep aquifer in Wisconsin contained human intestinal viruses, which as a group are associated with diseases such as meningitis, encephalitis, newborn enteroviral disease and polio.
Deep aquifers are a source of drinking water for many people.
Context:
Municipal drinking water wells are often drilled deep into the ground to reach aquifers lying under relatively impermeable layers called aquitards. Aquifers bounded above and below by aquitards are called contained aquifers. The aquitards are thought to protect the aquifers from surface contamination.
Shallow groundwater near waste water injection well sites can contain bacteria and viruses. Injecting waste water from treatment plants into the ground to recharge wells continues even though it's been known for 30 years that the recharged well water can be contaminated with pathogens (Vaughn et al. 1978). Bacteria found in human intestines have been measured as well in aquifers in the United Kingdom (Powell et al. 2003).
Viruses have a greater likelihood of reaching aquifers to contaminate drinking water than bacteria, protozoa and other waterborne, disease-causing organisms because their small size may allow them to pass through aquitards to reach aquifer waters. Until now, this possibility has not been tested explicitly. In a survey of over 400 sites across the United States, groundwater samples tested positive for at least one virus type (Abbaszadegan et al. 2003). This study, however, did not identify which of the aquifers were contained aquifers. Researchers testing deep aquifers used for drinking water found human viruses, challenging the assumption that these crucial water sup... more
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