Bark launches our winter campaign

Dear Barker,

Nestlé wants to take our water and produce 266 million plastic bottles annually right here in the Columbia River Gorge. We can stop them, but we need your support now.

Here's where Nestle's proposal stands and why your end-of-year donation is so important.

Bark supporters overwhelm permit process, decision delayed... until now

This spring Bark helped over 2,000 Oregonians submit official comments on the application to transfer water for Nestlé to bottle. We organized so many comments that it has taken over six months for the Water Department to process the application!

A decision could be just weeks away. We need to fight harder than ever to convince Governor Kitzhaber to intervene and withdraw the application before this decision is made.

The State is giving away our water?

The Nestlé Corporation wants to bottle Oxbow Spring, pictured below. The spring water originates from Mt. Hood National Forest and daylights in the Columbia River Gorge.

Our Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife uses the water for an endangered salmon hatchery. Despite this, the Department applied to transfer the rights to the City of Cascade Locks, which would then enter into a long-term contract to sell the water to Nestlé for 1/5 of a cent per gallon. Our State agency even footed the $1,600 permit fee!

Bark turns your donation into power

Nestlé has $107 billion in assets. But the Palomar Pipeline was backed by companies worth $43 billion and Bark stopped that proposal this year. Bark's 17,000-person email list and long-standing local presence enables us to influence decision makers, which is exactly what we need to do now.

When you donate to Bark, our small staff educates and trains volunteers -- turning your money into thousands of actions.

Bark met with Governor Kitzhaber's staff last month and was told that he had "not yet taken a position." We explained that his agency is already supporting Nestlé and that we need him to intervene and direct the Department of Fish and Wildlife to withdraw its application.

We then hammered home our message by delivering over 3,000 comments from Oregonians demanding that the Governor take action!


Now we need you to support Bark's Winter Campaign

Bark is going door-to-door, educating thousands of Oregonians about how they can help oppose the permit. Bark is leading public hikes to Oxbow Spring. Bark is lobbying the Governor’s office and the Water Resources Department and we are researching legal challenges to the proposal. Bark relies 100% on donations from supporters like you for our work to stop Nestle.

Bark needs your support before December 31st

In Madison County, Florida, residents have only realized two-thirds of the jobs promised by Nestlé. In Mecosta County, Michigan, the community poured money into ten years of legal wrangling to stop Nestle from overdrawing its wetlands, streams, and lakes. And just two years ago Nestlé's back-door deal with the Services District of McCloud, California, tore the town apart. 

Donate now and help stop this mess before Oregon becomes the next Nestlé disaster story.

Bark is making one last push before the Oregon Water Resources Board makes its decision on the water transfer permit in January. Please make a special Winter Campaign gift to help us meet our $30,000 goal by December 31st.

Sincerely,

Alex P. Brown, Executive Director


PS- Two years ago people told us that we couldn't stop the Palomar Pipeline, but we did. Oregonians have a track record for doing things differently, and Bark is counting on your support to continue that tradition as we fight Nestlé, the world's biggest food corporation, from privatizing our water.


*Estimate based on one liter bottles and Nestle's total water use figures.