Jesse Scheckner
Sen. Anette Taddeo hopes the third time’s the charm for a proposal that would tax bottled water companies tapping Florida springs 12.5 cents per gallon drained.
Taddeo and Rep. Joe Casello, both Democrats, again filed twin bills Wednesday (SB 798 and HB 473) to impose fees on bottled water operators who extract from public waters, including state springs.
The money collected would be pooled into the Wastewater Treatment and Stormwater Management Revolving Loan Trust Fund, which could be used to attract federal matching dollars for massive undertakings with hefty price tags, like Miami-Dade’s planned to septic-to-sewer conversion program that is expected to cost billions.
The 12.5-cent fee is hardly a big ask, said Taddeo, who has backed three bills to levy it since 2020. Her first attempt stalled in committee as bottled water companies fought the measure. The same fate befell a second bill she and Casello filed early this year.
Nestlé, which produces the Zephyrhills and Pure Life bottled water brands, was among companies that fought the legislation. In February, the state OK’d the company’s proposal to continue drawing 1 million gallons of water per day from Ginnie Springs.
That same month, Nestlé announced the $4.3 billion sale of its bottled water brands in North America — which also include Poland Springs, Deer Park, Arrowhead and Ozarka — to equity firms One Rock Capital Partners and Metropoulos & Co.
The operation, now rebranded as BlueTriton Brands, pays just a $115 permit fee for the water it extracts without any accounting for how much it takes and leaves behind.
It’s time to close that “corporate welfare loophole” and claw back funds to help ensure all Floridians have ample access to clean water now and in the future, Taddeo said.
“It is unconscionable that certain corporate water bottling companies exploit our state water, without paying their fair share, while all other companies who bottle water through municipalities pay for their water,” she said. “At a time when we desperately need funding for septic-to-sewer projects, we should not be giving bottling companies our springs’ water for free.”
Fresh water isn’t sustainable, and believing otherwise is taking the precious commodity for granted, said Casello, who is again matching Taddeo’s bills in the House after doing so during the 2021 Legislative Session — when he pointed out that Nestlé made $7.8 billion in global sales in 2019 from bottled water alone.
“We cannot stand by,” he said, “while the industry drains our state and profits off resources that belong to all Floridians for the price of a $115 permit fee.”
