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Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

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Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#21

Post by Turing_Machine »

lima wrote: post #16
Turing_Machine wrote: post #7

The Muskegon River (the main drainage for the area) has a discharge of 1,450 cubic feet per second at Evart, Michigan (where this facility is located). That is about 11,000 gallons per second, or about 937 million gallons per day. The facility proposes to pump about half a millon gallons per day. Tempest, meet teapot. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/mi/nwis/current/?type=flow

Isn't that apples and oranges, comparing the numbers like that? The river is connected to the water table, sure, but surely the issue is more complicated than that?

I don't see how it could be more complicated. Any groundwater that isn't pumped out and used is going to eventually go down the river, right? Otherwise the area would be underwater.

Yeah, there are places where groundwater enters the aquifer from long distances away. Michigan is not one of those places. It gets plenty of precipitation.

Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#22

Post by MereInterest »

So long as nothing is shipped outside the Great Lakes watershed, I am not opposed to this. The problem is that while directly piping water outside of the watershed is forbidden, bottling it then shipping doesn't fall under this definition. This is the loophole that needs to be closed.

Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#25

Post by anigbrowl »

Spivak wrote: post #11
jumelles wrote: post #2

> 80,945 against and 75 in favor Life in a democracy?

At least to me, this is the system working. Of course anything surrounding Michigan, Nestle and water is going to attract attention and serve as the backdrop for uninformed people to vent their anger. And despite all the backlash the adminstration followed the law and the right call was still made.

That's nice for Nestle, but ignores the fact that Flint is still having water quality problems and replacement of the lead-tainted pipes won't be complete until 2020. It's entirely reasonable that citizens would like their government to prioritize their wellbeing at the expense of regular procedure, considering that the Flint water crisis was a product of government error to start with.

Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#26

Post by Pharylon »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #7

The Muskegon River (the main drainage for the area) has a discharge of 1,450 cubic feet per second at Evart, Michigan (where this facility is located). That is about 11,000 gallons per second, or about 937 million gallons per day. The facility proposes to pump about half a millon gallons per day. Tempest, meet teapot. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/mi/nwis/current/?type=flow

Are they pumping the water from the Muskegon River? No? OK... then... uh... what are you talking about?

Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#28

Post by Pfhreak »

ucaetano wrote: post #12

> Nestlé's request to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to pump 576,000 gallons of water each day For perspective, all of Michigan uses 9 billion gallons of water each day. Nestle will be using 0.006% of what the state uses. Looking just at groundwater, Michigan uses 690 million gallons of water per day. Nestle will be using 0.08% of what the state uses. This is irrelevant. And I'm glad the personal op…

This is not a useful comparison. It equates statewide use to a factory that will presumably source water from a focused area. What are the conditions like at the site of the factory? Can that site accommodate that intake? Is 0.5m the final scale of the factory?

Maybe it's not a big deal, maybe it is, but you can't use wide geographic generalizations like this to dismiss the concern.

Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#29

Post by anigbrowl »

Firerouge wrote: post #5
jumelles wrote: post #2

> 80,945 against and 75 in favor Life in a democracy?

It sounds like these comments were misdirected, and should have gone towards policy makers, not an agency that proclaims to only enforce existing policy.

It turns out policy makers are not as responsive as they are supposed to be, so people are forced to seek other outlets to express their concern.

Re: Michigan OKs Nestlé Water Extraction, Despite Public Comments Against It

#30

Post by Turing_Machine »

banach wrote: post #20
koolba wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: >> But despite deep public opposition, the agency concluded that the company's plan met with legal standards. I’ll take equal interpretation of the law over mob rule any day of the week.

The holocaust was legal, slavery was legal, segregation was legal. If you use the state as a metric for ethics you'll end up disappointed. -- @lex_looper

Are you seriously comparing pumping 1/2000 of the water that normally goes down the local river with the holocaust or slavery?
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