Portland Press Herald - Nestle Waters North America, which bottles Maine water under the Poland Spring brand, has been dealt a potential setback in its effort to secure long-term supplies from Fryeburg’s privately held water utility at prices critics say are too low.
The proposed contract should not be approved by the Public Utilities Commission, a PUC staff report made public Friday recommended.
The report, by PUC hearing examiner Matthew Kaply, said the local utility – the family-controlled Fryeburg Water Co. – had been established to “convey to the village of Fryeburg a supply of pure water for domestic and other uses” and not to sell that supply as a “bulk commodity” to bottlers like Nestle.
The development raises the possibility that the PUC might invalidate not only the proposed contract but Nestle Waters’ current arrangement in Fryeburg as well. “I would say if this ruling were adopted by the commission and became final – and wasn’t vacated by the Supreme Court on appeal – that the existing contracts should be considered void,” said Bruce McGlauflin, the attorney for several opponents of the contract in the proceedings.
“The report validates everything we’ve been saying all along: that this 25-year proposal with options of extending it to 45 years … was a shameful sweetheart deal with a multinational corporation to strip a local community of its right to water,” said Nisha Swinton of Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group that has been campaigning against the contract.
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