Judge Tosses Out Town’s Water Deal With Nestle

A Siskiyou County judge scrapped a deal made by the village of McCloud to sell more than half a billion gallons of spring water annually to the world’s largest food and beverage company, ruling it failed to pass environmental scrutiny before it was signed.

The decision halts plans to sell water to Nestle for a proposed $120-million water bottling plant that supporters said would revitalize the former lumber town at the base of Mt. Shasta.

Concerned McCloud Citizens, which was formed by women who raised questions about the project, sued the McCloud Community Services District to block the deal after learning that it would give Nestle up to 521 million gallons of the town’s drinking water for as little as $300,000 a year. The 50-year deal could be extended for a century with little control by the town.