From Oregon Public Broadcasting: Hood River County voters have approved a ban on commercial water bottling, blocking a $50 million bottling plant Nestlé wants to build in the Columbia River Gorge.
Early results showed 69 percent of county voters approving a measure that restricts the production and transportation of bottled water to less than 1,000 gallons a day from any Hood River County water source. That would effectively block Nestlé’s plans to build a plant in Cascade Locks that would bottle more than 100 million gallons of water a year, drawn from Oxbow Springs.
The voters of Hood River County have spoken out overwhelmingly against the Nestlé plan and other large-scale bottling operations. Post-election, Friends encourages community leaders from Cascade Locks and throughout the county to collaborate and identify a vision for economic development in Cascade Locks that has broad public support and is consistent with responsible stewardship of natural resources in the Columbia River Gorge.
Read the OPB article.
Learn more about why Friends does not support the Nestlé proposal to bottle water from Oxbow Springs.
