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Bottled water as glorified tap water
By adamg on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 11:47am
The MetroWest Daily News reports that Framingham's largest water consumer is a Nestle plant in the Framingham Industrial Park, which "purifies" MWRA water, then sells it for way more than the six-tenths of a cent it currently pays the town for every gallon of eau de Quabbin it takes in.
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Comments
Hey I get the same stuff and
Hey I get the same stuff and purify it using Brita tanks for pennies on the dollar. Maybe I should market my own bottled water as well!
Towns selling water to Nestle? Ugh
Hey that's nice... a foreign megacorporation is taking our most vital natural resource and pimping it around the state/country/world.
I look forward to the headlines when that source dries up:
"Town sells water, residents left out to dry"
"Region residents die from thirst"
It should be illegal to sell water out of the state... it's just such a short-term economic retardation it makes me sad.
At the very least we should
At the very least we should charge companies like this more for the water then we do a normal consumer or even a normal industrial consumer. If were charging you a 100th of a penny (or whatever it is) for each 20 ounce portion and your charging 1.50 for that same bottle the MWRA should be getting extra cash from you for infrastructure improvements, and possibly even for a fund to replace old worn out rusted pipes so more people will have access to cheap clean water.
If you think the difference
If you think the difference between raw material costs and retail product is all profit, you are a damn fool.
If you pay 1.50 for a bottle of water, you are an even bigger damn fool.
Already done
Looks like they're paying about 50% more per gallon than your typical household, according to the Town's rates .
Let's remember that the Quabbin is a manmade reservoir. This isn't a case of Nestle draining a lake in Maine or a sensitive ecosystem in Michigan. As long as MWRA is under the safe yield of the Quabbin supply shouldn't be a major issue.
That being said, I agree completely with the previous poster that it's crazy to pay dollars per gallon when you can use a Brita or similar device to get the same quality for pennies per gallon.
Water Market
Well, I certainly won't argue with the market, that water as a product to purchase does exist. I've certainly been on road trips and stopped into a store to get a drink but with no desire to buy soda/garbageade/etc and distinctly sought bottled water.
I guess I'm just conflicted about selling a nearby natural resource.
Like a big case of NIMBY-ism. Bottled water should be in stores, but they shouldn't be taking it from my regional water sources. Hah.
So I guess the best market solution is for towns to charge a whole bunch as a form of deterrence. Good call guys. And I was pretty sure that is a general policy for muni water sources selling to private companies.
Is water actually a profit
Is water actually a profit center for government, or are taxpayers actually subsidizing the sale of their resources to Nestle at a loss?
Does Framingham even use Quabbin water?
I thought it was just Boston metro. I'm surprised bottling and marketing Quabbin water isn't in Deval's list of budget-balancing plans.
Boston Ale
www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/22/pure...
Get your Boston Ale here, Boston Ale!
Oh, yes they do
I can state that with some assurance, having spent many months in my callow youth covering Framingham Board of Public Works meetings.
Framingham does have wells, but I think those are for emergency use only. In contrast, Natick uses the MWRA for sewage, but has its own drinking-water wells.