US-based packaged water major BlueTriton has filed a complaint against members of the Forest Service in San Bernadino county, California, after having been asked to shut down operations in an area of federal land in San Bernadino national forest (SBNF).
According to a recent case filing, at the end of July, BlueTriton received a letter from the Forest Service that denied the renewal of its special use permit (SUP), which allows the Arrowhead water maker to use a “4.5-mile long right-of-way crossing a 4.51 acre area of Forest Service-managed land”.
Go deeper with GlobalData
“As a consequence of this denial, BlueTriton’s current permit terminates, and it must cease operations on SBNF lands”, the letter said.
The denial of the permit means the group would lose access to its 23,000-foot-long pipeline which carries spring water from the Arrowhead springs through Strawberry Canyon and the 4.5 mile stretch of federal land.
BlueTriton had last had the permit authorised in February 2023, and had submitted a request for SUP renewal that same month.
In a separate statement, a BlueTriton spokesperson told Just Drinks had “continuously operated under a series of special use permits for nearly a century.”
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataThey added: “This denial has no legal merit, is unsupported by the facts, and negatively impacts the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, who rely on our renewable and sustainable water operations in Strawberry Canyon for water use and fire suppression needs.
In the letter issued by the SBNF, the group said that the Connecticut-headquartered company had not given the “additional information necessary to assure compliance” with the permit.
“Several of our requests, particularly those concerning the use of the water being taken from SBNF lands, were consistently left unanswered by BlueTriton”, it said.
BlueTriton claims that over the past decade it had regularly “engaged expert scientific consultants who have studied the Strawberry Canyon area in an unprecedented level of detail, completing dozens of technical studies, analyses, reports and submissions.
“The findings and robust data set developed through these multi-year hydrological and ecological studies, some of which are ongoing, show no material difference between environmental and habitat conditions in the Strawberry Canyon watershed where we operate and the adjacent canyons where we do not operate.
“These studies prove that our careful stewardship of the water and land for over 100 years has not negatively affected the Strawberry Canyon environment. Credible evidence to the contrary has never been presented.”
The Ice Mountain bottler said that the US Forest Service had “agreed to issue a temporary 30-day stay for the sole purpose of supplying the needs of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, including for fire prevention during the ongoing fire season.
“We will continue to operate in compliance with all state and federal laws while we explore legal and regulatory options on this matter, beginning with the filing of our Complaint and Preliminary Injunction in Federal Court last week.”
Last September, California’s water board approved a cease-and-desist order against the Poland Spring producer, preventing the group from diverting millions of gallons of water from springs in Strawberry Creek watershed, also in San Bernadino.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously to restrict how much water BlueTriton could funnel away from the Strawberry Creek watershed through tunnels and other transportation methods. The move, which came into effect from 1 November 2023, did not ban the company from taking water from the area completely.
In a statement sent to Just Drinks at the time, BlueTriton said it was “disappointed” by the ruling and would “vigorously defend our water rights through available legal process”.
The company has been asked to provide an update on those legal proceedings.
