Oregon legislators protest Nestlé water deal

Nine Oregon legislators are urging Gov. Kate Brown to block a water-rights transfer they say gives the public's water to a multinational corporation for free.

The deal "evades public interest review while enabling a private company to extract Oregon's clean water," the lawmakers said in a letter to Brown last week.

The controversy centers on state-owned water rights at Oxbow Springs, near Cascade Locks in the Columbia Gorge. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife uses the water for a nearby salmon hatchery.

For six years, the Swiss company Nestlé has been trying to tap the spring for a bottling plant it would build in Cascade Locks, providing about 50 jobs in the small, economically depressed town.

The city had been aiming to trade its well water gallon-for-gallon with the state's Oxbow Springs water, then sell the spring water to Nestlé.

That plan has generated more than 80,000 letters in opposition over the years, said Alex P. Brown, executive director of Bark, a nonprofit that works to preserve the Mount Hood National Forest, where the springs originate.

The plan also faced an extensive review to determine whether it served the public interest.

Earlier this month, the city and state decided to pursue a new agreement that would permanently trade water rights instead of just water. That does not require a public-interest review.

"After six years of working through this, we just decided to change to the transfer method because that is the most common method for transferring water," said Rick Kepler, Fish and Wildlife's water program manager. "That would be a similar thing, but it might be easier to do."

The proposal isn't a giveaway, Kepler said.

"We're getting water back from the city, and we're providing water to the city," he said.

But some legislators see it differently.

"We're trading high-value spring water for lower-value well water," said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland. "It's state water we're talking about. It's not Cascade Locks' water. Everybody has an interest in this."

"We question the merit of transferring Oregon's public water right so a corporation can bottle and sell our water," reads the letter, signed by Dembrow and Reps. Ann Lininger, Barbara Smith Warner, Phil Barnhart, Peter Buckley, Lew Frederick, Ken Helm, Alissa Keny-Guyer and Nancy Nathanson.

"Oregon has declared drought emergencies in five counties. As water becomes increasingly scarce and sought-after in the West, we should not enter lightly into a deal to extract it."

Nestlé sells 64 brands of water in 43 countries. It taps 50 springs across the United States but doesn't have a source of spring water in the Pacific Northwest. Instead, it trucks bottled water here from Sacramento.

Cascade Locks and the Department of Fish and Wildlife have filed transfer applications with the Oregon Water Resources Department.

Gov. Brown could direct Fish and Wildlife to withdraw its application, said Alex P. Brown, the Bark director.

Dembrow said he also hopes Gov. Brown will ensure there at least is a more substantial public process.

That seems unlikely.

"The Governor's primary role in these types of state agency regulatory processes is an objective one; to ensure the permitting process entrusted to state agencies happens in an orderly and lawful fashion," Melissa Navas, a spokeswoman for Gov. Brown, wrote in an email response to questions. "As we understand it, ODFW officials have begun outreach to the legislators who signed the letter. That's an important step."

tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/SJWatchdog

Learn more

Visit the Oregon Water Resources Department to learn more about or comment on a proposed water transfer involving Nestlé Waters.

A public comment period (not the same as a public-interest review) is open until May 14.