The company that sells Arrowhead Brand Bottled Water won a court decision to overthrow a decision by California Water regulators, which in 2023 ordered him to stop the millions of gallons in the national forest of San Bernardino.
The judge of the Superior Court of the County of Fresno, Robert Whalen Jr., said in his decision that the order of the State Resources Control Commission was “beyond the limits of its delegated authority”.
The council had ordered the company BlueTriton Marks to stop taking a large part of the water, he signed water tunnels and boreholes in the mountains near San Bernardino. The board of directors made the order to “stop and abstain” after the agency staff conducted an investigation and determined that the company illegally diverted Springs water without valid water rights.
However, the judge concluded that the law of the state “applied inappropriately”. He said that the legal issue did not concern “water rights” and that he cited a provision indicating that the Council does not have the power to regulate groundwater.
A spokesman for Bluetriton Brands said that the company appreciated the court’s decision in his favor, who said that State Water Board “had exceeded his authority to issue an order to stop and abstain” targeting the company’s operations in Arrowhead Springs in Strawberry Canyon.
Managers of the State Water Resources Control Board analyze the court’s decision, which was published on Monday, said Jackie Carpenter, spokesperson for the board of directors.
“State Water Board does not agree with the court’s decision and considers that the legal, engineering and hydrogeological file in this case demonstrates the solid basis of its decision in 2023,” said Carpenter. “The council assesses if the decision must be called upon.”
The company’s bottled water pipeline is also at the center of two other prosecution in the United States District Court of Riverside.
In one of the cases before the district judge Jesus Bernal, the company challenges the decision in 2024 of the US Forest Service denying its Request for a new license Continue to exploit its pipeline and other water infrastructure in the national forest. The agency ordered the company to close the operation and submit a plan to withdraw its federal land pipes and equipment.
In another trial, the local environmental group saves our Assn Forest. East According to the forest servicearguing that the agency violated federal laws by allowing the company to continue to tu tuyser the water and alleging that the elimination of water has considerably reduced the flow of Strawberry Creek and causes significant environmental damage.
The company has denied that its use of water harms the environment and argued that it should be allowed to continue using water from the national forest.
Rachel Doughty, lawyer for Save Our Forest Assn., Said the forest service was right to refuse to refuse the company’s license.
“I hope there is water in the stream as soon as possible,” said Doughty. “It is the objective is that water remains on the ground for the benefit of the public on public lands.”
If the decision of the forest service stands, it would prevent the company from using the homonymous source of its brand of a 100% mountain spring water.
The springs in the mountains north of San Bernardino, which are a source of bottled water for generations, bears the name of a formation of natural rock in the shape of the mountain.
A 4-inch steel pipe system collects water flowing by gravity from various sites on the steep flank above the stream. The files show that around 319 acres, or 104 million gallons, crossed the company’s network of pipes in 2023, filling a tank by the roadside where trucks collect water and transport it to a traffic jam.
State officials said the first installations to divert water in the Strawberry Creek watershed had been built in 1929, and the system has developed over the years when additional drilling has been drilled on the mountainside.
The company has had a “special use” federal permit for years allowing it to use its pipeline and other aquatic infrastructure in the national forest. The forest service billed license fees of $ 2,500 per year. There was no water for water.
The controversy on the question broke out when the desert sun reported In 2015, the forest service allowed Nestlé, who then directed the operation, to siphon water using a license listed in 1988 as an expiration date.
Forest service then started a review license, and in 2018 granted a new license For up to five years. The revelations on the Nestlé piping waters of the forest triggered a Opposition of the opposition and prompted several complaints to California regulators by putting back State survey.
Bluetriton resumed the pipeline operation in 2021 when the Nestlé north American bottled water division was bought by the investment capital company, One Rock Capital Partners and the Metropoulos & Co.
Last year, BlueTriton merged with Primo Water Corp. To form a new company called Primo Brands Corp.Who has a double headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and Stamford, Conn.
The company claims that in addition to the San Bernardino National Forest site, from the bottle of arrow spikes comes from various other spring and southern spring sites of California, as well as a spring in Colorado and another in British Columbia, in Canada.
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