ASK YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION to PROTECT OUR PUBLIC TRUST WATERS:

  • Level the playing field for water and “clean water project charges.”  CT residents and most businesses are wisely conserving water. Raising rates for them while providing discounts for ultra-high volume users, who extract large quantities of our state’s water, is poor public policy. Corporations such as Niagara Bottling of California that profit off CT's water infrastructure should pay into it as least as much as residents. Prohibit water rate and clean water charge discounts for large water bottlers.

  • Enact a permitting system for large water sales to water bottlers. Moving over 50,000 gallons water/day from one watershed to another by pipe requires a Diversion Permit.  Yet large water bottlers can ship water out of state by truck with no regulation. Close this loophole by requiring  a time-limited permit which can be reviewed should Connecticut's water resources ever be strained. 

  • Protect residents in a drought. Don't ask residents to conserve water while water bottling companies are sending millions of gallons of Connecticut water out of state for corporate profit.  Prohibit the export of bottled water out of state if a Drought Warning is in effect.

  • Support implementation of the state water plan's objectives before any more corporate water raids.  .  Not ALL of Connecticut is water-rich.  We need a state-wide "water budget"  to ensure there is adequate water for ALL of Connecticut's residents, businesses, environment, and agriculture.

Contact Information

Find Your State Legislators

Governor Lamont

Dept. of Energy & Environmental Protection

Dept. of Public Health
The name "Niagara Bottling" did not appear on the TPZ permit or the Wetlands Permit in Bloomfield.  No state regulation currently requires that a developer's name must be made public. Instead, a third party engineer submitted the documentation. On Dec 14th, 2015 the MDC changed two ordinances granting rate discounts to Niagara, the only customer eligible for them.  On the same day, they authorized an $8M bond- to be paid for by ratepayers- to extend a water main to the Niagara area. And the Bloomfield town council, lured by the promise of tax payments and jobs, granted a $4.9M tax abatement.

The following fall, after a large public outcry, the MDC revoked its rate cuts for Niagara.  However, in the fall of 2018, disregarding public opinion, it once again sought to grant large discounts on water and sewer rates to industrial water users. Only continued vigilance and activist water advocates prevented another corporate give-away.