Nestle's Poland Spring Is Common Groundwater, New Suit Alleges
- Maine spring is defunct, pumped by machine, plaintiffs say
- Some water sourced near landfills, petroleum pits, suit says
Bottles of Poland Spring water sit on display at a grocery store in New York on June 19, 2003. Poland Spring, first bottled by the Ricker family in Maine in 1845, is now taken from wells as far as 30 miles away from the original source, which hasn't flowed since 1967, the suit says. One source is a parking lot by the side of a road used by hundreds of trucks, and another is near a former dump and below a site that used to be fertilized with sewage, the suit says.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergNestle SA’s Poland Spring Water unit has duped American consumers into paying premium prices for ordinary ground water that’s pumped from some of Maine’s most populated areas, rather than from natural springs as the company advertises, according to a lawsuit.
While Poland Springs says its water bottles contain “100 percent natural spring water” from a source deep in Maine’s woods, the complaint filed August 15 in federal court in Connecticut claims that Nestle Waters North America has bottled well water that doesn’t meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s definition of spring water. The suit, which includes claims for breach of contract and fraud, also seeks unspecified damages for violations of state laws including New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.