Nestlé faces environmental scrutiny for bottled water operations in California, US

US Forest Service has initiated an environmental review of the bottling operations carried out by Nestlé Waters North America in California.

The federal agency has been instigated to start with the process following environmental and public interest group protests, which accuse the firm to be continuing its Strawberry Canyon facility operations on an expired permit.

The permit expired in 1988 and allowed Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé to extract 50 to 150 million gallons of water in a year from anywhere, for its Arrowhead bottled water brand.

US Forest Service spokesperson John Heil was cited by San Bernardino Sun newspaper as saying that the review, which will be carried out under the National Environmental Policy Act, is aimed to evaluate the effects of re-issuing the special use permit.

Environmentalists opine that Nestle’s water bottling operations have affected the creek in the San Bernardino Mountains and the wildlife dependent on it, since the US state of California is already struggling under a prolonged drought.

Heil said: "The forest has assigned an interdisciplinary team and is developing the proposed action.

"When the proposed action is fully developed, the public will be invited to submit comments through the scoping process."

A complaint had been filed against the company in the US District Court in Riverside, which demanded the federal agency to start a scientific study on the effects of the water drawdown in the Strawberry Canyon.

According to a statement made by the plaintiffs after the lawsuit was filed, the piping system has withdrawn about 68,000 gallons of water per day out of the forest in 2014.