One of the most infuriating aspects of the Flint water crisis is that residents are not only still being charged for their poisoned water, but they’re being charged higher rates than almost anywhere in the country.
Residents continue to pay $864 a year for water that is making them sick, more than double what most Americans pay for water service. Flint’s water service charges total 7 percent of the average household income, compared to the United Nations recommendation of 3 percent.
“They’ve been using that money improperly for years to fund the general operations of the city,” said Valdemar L. Washington, who’s been fighting the excessive increases in court since 2012. “The city’s sewer fund had a balance of $36 million in 2006 but was running a $23-million deficit by 2012.”
Meanwhile, less than two hundred miles away, multi-billion dollar corporation Nestle has been pumping millions of gallons out of Lake Michigan for free. In fact, they receive 13 million dollars in tax breaks to do so.
Despite making over 15 billion dollars in profits in 2014, Michigan government officials don’t charge Nestle per gallon of water, instead taking only a small permitting fee, as Democracy Now explained:
So not only do low income Flint residents technically pay more for Michigan water than Nestle, but now they’re also forced to buy bottled water from Nestle to stay alive. Flint residents are in the deplorable position of being forced to buy Michigan water from two different parties.
The Nestle bottling plant itself is a hated institution in Mecosta County. As if getting water for free wasn’t enough, the corporation greedily pumped at a rate of 400 gallons a minute, destroying the local environment. Grassroots organization Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) sued Nestle, who bitterly fought the local group for years.
“We wanted to protect our water, and the water was ours, not theirs,” said Peggy Case, President of MCWC. “This lasted for—like I said before, this lasted for eight years. And in that time, with lawyer fees and, you know, all the fees that come with going to court, we spent over $1 million.”
And how did a local activist organization scrounge up the money to fight a corporate giant?
“We scrambled for every penny we could get,” Case said. “We did 50/50 raffles among us, or anybody else we could get into it. We did yard sales. We wrote grants. We had bake sales.”
In a stunning victory, MCWC succeeded in forcing Nestle to reduce their withdrawals from 400 to 200 gallons a minute. But Nestle continues to receive free water and preferential treatment.
And Flint residents continue to be overcharged for water that is not only killing them, but bankrupting them as well.
Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW
http://usuncut.com/class-war/nestle-pumping-from-great-lakes-while-flint-pays-for-poison/
Nestle, take our water and sell it back to us @ $2.00 a Nestle. Burn these son’s of bitches to the ground. No F’N doubt they’re Clinton foundation contributors, shall we dig deeper? Only Monsanto can brag about their apathy with more vigor.
“We, at Nestle, want all you Flint residents to die. That way, you’ll quit your bitchin’, bitches. You are invisible and disposable!” All except for that mass of moving maggots, Michael Moore. As with the Great Wall of China, Moore’s mass of maggots can be seen from space!
Fkng killing me Mill…..I think you have some stored up aggression.
That needs to be released.
Eventually we might get you into an anger management program.
Or better yet…
Sensitivity training.
Cause we just don’t know how you feel.
🙂
Yes flee, maybe I just don’t “get it”. You know the mantra, “There is no “I” in Team.” No communist could say it any better. There are no losers cause were all winners, yaaaaaaaa!
Dr. Quinn, Medicine c**t, couldn’t “do-good-us” with more vigor.
Well, in my mind, if there are no losers, there are no winners as well. We’ll just remain stagnant in our evolutionary development, with no incentive to succeed as there is no reward.
Remember, back in the day, when women were still “proper”? I know many here ain’t old enough to know but there was a time when no “honeydew” was tasted ’till the Wedding night.
And “loose” women were known as such, right along with their womanizing men, making fools of themselves for fleshly pleasures.
If one has yet to jump that hurdle, get it done and
bury the hatchet. Nothing is a greater distraction than a “woody”.
I’ll gladly take on the argument posed in another article recently posted regarding women’s role’s in the decline of civilizations. Let’s hear the other side of the argument, Gloria. Show me that I’ve bit off more than I can chew.
Nestle….Slogan.
“Good Food Good Life”
Get the fk outta here! GTFOH.
Goddamnd corporate shills.
So they’re stealing what isn’t being sold to China.
Who says they’re not selling it and making a profit off of China?
That too.
Like Bill Hicks said….if you are are a marketer just kill yourself.
This is not a joke. I’m fkng serious here goddamint.