WATER IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE EARTH, but by 2025, according to the United Nations, two-thirds of the world’s population could face chronic shortages of water. In fact, some countries are already importing huge supertankers of freshwater from other countries. But one place that’s definitely not short of water is the state of Michigan, which has 11,000 lakes and is surrounded by Lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior, and Erie. So it came as a surprise to some that the Nestlé company’s new Ice Mountain bottled-water plant in Mecosta County, Michigan, dredged up so much controversy when it began pumping water from a local spring.81 Nestlé’s willingness to invest $100 million to build a new 410,000-square-foot bottling plant in Mecosta reflects the fact that bottled water is big business, with annual sales of $6 billion (up 35 percent since 1997). Many county residents, in fact, are thrilled about Nestlé’s being there.
The Ice Mountain plant employs about a hundred people at $12 to $23 per hour, significantly more than many local jobs pay. And the company shells out hundreds of thousands of dollars in local taxes. Township supervisor Maxine McClellan says, “This is probably the best project we’ve ever brought into Mecosta County.” She adds that she wants “a diversified economy where our kids don’t have to move away to find jobs.”
The problem, as some local residents see it, is that Nestlé
has also built a 12-mile stainless steel pipeline from the plant to Sanctuary Spring, which sits on an 850-acre private deer-hunting ranch and is part of the headwaters of the Little Muskegon River, which flows into the Muskegon and then into Lake Michigan. The company started pumping 130 gallons of water every minute from the spring, with plans to increase that to 400 gallons per minute, or about 262 million gallons a year. But whose water is Nestlé pumping? That’s the question being asked by Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC), a local Mecosta group that has filed suit contesting Nestlé’s right to the spring’s waters. Although the company has a ninety-nine-year lease on the land, MCWC contends that the water itself is a public resource. As Jim Olson, MCWC’s lawyer, explains it, under the doctrine of “reasonable use” the owners of a stream can use its water for drinking, boating, swimming, or anything else “as long as it’s in connection with their land.” But, he argues, “this does not include the right to transport....

Discussion Questions 1. Should people in Michigan be concerned about how, and by whom, the state’s ground water is used? In your view, what issues of justice does this case raise?
2. Would Nestlé’s pumping 262 million gallons of water per year from Sanctuary Spring constitute “reasonable use”? Is the company treating either local residents or the Native American tribes unfairly, or would it be unfair to restrict Nestlé’s use of water from the spring?
3. Is groundwater a public resource, the use of which is appropriate for society to regulate? Or is it the property of those who own the land to use as they see fit? Who has the strongest claim on groundwater—the owners of the land from which it is pumped, the original inhabitants of the area (that is, the local Indian tribes), local residents, citizens of the whole Great Lakes region, or all Americans?
4. Assess this case from the perspective of the utilitarian, libertarian, and Rawlsian theories of justice. How would each address the case? Which theory’s approach do you find the most helpful or illuminating?