Dear Thomas,

Last October, we sued to stop Nestlé from pumping water out of California's national forests using an expired permit and virtually free of charge.

They're claiming that Nestlé has a right to take water out of our forests, no matter what the Forest Service says. And that making them apply for a permit violates Nestlé’s legal rights!(1)

It's outrageous, but with unlimited amounts of money to spend on an army of lawyers, Nestlé just might be able to make this argument stick.

When we first saw the argument Nestlé's lawyers are making, we almost couldn't believe it. Since when do private water bottling companies have a right to take water out of our national forests?

They don't have that right, but the Forest Service has been letting Nestlé get away with it for years.

Monday was the first hearing on the case, and Courage Campaign and our allies packed the room with over 40 supporters vs. four lawyers from Nestlé. The judge called out the Forest Service for arguing that too much time had gone by to challenge the expired permit -- but he also asked our lawyers to provide some technical information before a final decision can be made.(2)

The facts of our case are overwhelming: the Forest Service let Nestlé pump as much as 27 million gallons of water for $524 each year using a permit that expired in 1988. That's $524 for 27 million gallons that they sell in bottles for $2 a liter -- hundreds of millions of dollars from selling bottled water that should stay in the national forest.(3)

Then, the forest service official who for years was responsible for reviewing Nestlé's permit left the forest service to go work for Nestlé.(4)

That's why we teamed up with our allies at Story of Stuff Project and the Center for Biological Diversity to file a lawsuit to stop Nestlé from taking our water. We're on the verge of a huge victory, but we're counting on you.

Yours in the fight to protect our water,

Tim, along with Annie, Eddie, Emma, Ernesto, Kelsey, Laura, Lindsay, Moonyoung, and Scottie (the Courage team)

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