Nestle Waters

On Wednesday a group of activists gathered in front of the Kennebunk District Water Trustees meeting to protest a proposed contract with Nestle Waters which would have allowed them to extract 432,000 gallons of water from their towns. Click here for more information.

A group of activists in Southern Maine is threatening legal action after they say they were kept out of a district water trustee’s board meeting Wednesday.

About 100 people gathered in Kennebunk to protest a contract that would allow Nestle Waters to purchase 432,000 gallons of water in a number of Southern Maine communities. The contract would last 30 years with an option to renew for 25 years.

The trustees were supposed to discuss a contract Wednesday afternoon that would have allowed Nestle access to resources in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Ogunquit and Wells. Kennebunk town officials suggested they hold the meeting at town hall – a larger facility – but instead the trustees remained in their usual meeting place down the street with seating for about 20.

With activists banging on the windows shouting “let us in” and “this is not what democracy looks like,” the trustees voted to table the issue for a month.