All Bottled Up: The Nestlé Case

On July 25th, the Michigan Supreme Court agreed with lower court rulings that Nestlé's groundwater extraction illegally harmed the lakes, stream, and wetlands in Mecosta County. They upheld the ruling that the company caused unreasonable harm to the water resources off the Nestle property, and the limits imposed on the company's pumping remain in place. The limits restrict pumping as much as 75% during the low flow or drier months, based on a monitoring regime that is in place for over 20 years.

Unfortunately, the Court also reversed part of the lower court's ruling. It limited the legal right of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) to bring a lawsuit against Nestlé under Michigan's Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) for damaging a lake and wetlands on Nestlé's own property. The Court's decision said that MCWC has standing (the right to bring the lawsuit) to protect lakes and streams that are owned or used by individuals or the group's members, but no right to bring suit to stop a polluter from destroying a lake and wetland on its own property. We agree with MCWC that the ruling is flawed, and support their recent filing to have the Court reconsider this decision.

IMPORTANT UPDATE OCTOBER 1, 2007:

By a narrow margin, four justices rejected the citizen group's bid to reverse the ruling from July of this year. While the ruling received this week does not affect MCWC's monumental victory under Michigan water law and the MEPA as to the stream and adjacent wetlands, it cripples the rights of citizens to file suits under the MEPA to protect the state's environment in the future.

"MCWC asked the Court to rehear its earlier decision, because it couldn't believe the Court really meant to trample on the rights of citizens granted to us by our constitution and the Michigan Environmental Protection Act to protect the lake and wetlands harmed by Nestlé's pumping of water," said Terry Swier, President of MCWC.

The Court's blow to the rights of citizens to bring suits, granted in 1970 by the Legislature to protect the state's environment, has met with outcry on the editorial pages of most newspapers. The decision is the last link in a line of decisions by the same four-justices majority during the past 3 or 4 years that curtail the rights of people to bring suits for personal injury, class actions, and the environment in a wide-range of circumstances, even though the law grants the right of people to redress wrongs that protect their person, property, or environment, without regard to the severity or pervasiveness of the wrong or damage.

For more information, visit the MCWC website at http://www.savemiwater.org/

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