nestleThe ongoing drought and strict watering restrictions in many communities are putting renewed focus on a petition regarding Nestle’s water extraction operations in the Fraser Valley.

The petition on the sumofus website asks the province to charge more than $2.25 per million litres, and campaign director Liz McDowell says it’s about what’s fair.

“It’s really hard when we as residents are being asked to conserve in every way possible, to take shorter showers, to not water our lawns, then to look and see private companies like Nestle, who are able to bottle millions and millions of litres of our groundwater and make a huge profit off of it.”

Chilliwack-Hope MLA Laurie Throness says water is used a lot in industry and it’s not fair to ask Nestle to take a hit.

“By far the largest user is agriculture, we think of tourism like swimming pools, water slides, golf courses, we think of water bottlers, and there are several of them in the Valley. To ask them to take a large reduction right now really cuts right into their business, which reduces tax revenue to the province, which in turns could impact provincial programs.”

McDowell says she thinks the company can afford it.

“You know raising a rate from $2.25 per million litres of water to something like other provinces in Canada have like $70 or $140 per million litres of water is not going to make anyone go bankrupt, let alone the agricultural sector or the bottled water sector. What it’s asking for is just to pay much fairer rates, that actually encourages a little bit of conservation.”

In an email, Nestle director of corporate affairs John Challinor says his company draws water from aquafirs and does not impact rivers, lakes, or other water sources that could be affected by the drought.

He also says beverage companies use just 0.02% of all groundwater in Canada compared to agriculture, which uses 70% of the province’s supply.