By Jordan King
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The company that sells Arrowhead bottled water has been ordered to "cease" taking water from San Bernardino National Forest.
BlueTriton Brands has been told by the U.S. Forest Service to shut down its infrastructure, including a pipeline in Strawberry Creek and boreholes drilled into the mountainside.
The firm has used springs in this area for its Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water since 1906, but environmental activists have long argued that removing the water is harmful to wildlife, especially Strawberry Creek.
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Last September, California regulators ordered BlueTriton to stop using some of the springs in the San Bernardino Mountains. This order did not stop the company from using the water completely, but it significantly reduced how much it could take.
The Forest Service has now denied BlueTriton Brands' application for a new permit.
In a letter sent to the firm on July 26, District Ranger Michael Nobles wrote that the agency had "repeatedly requested BlueTriton (to) provide information necessary" about "the use of water being taken from SBNF lands" which were "consistently left unanswered."
He said that BlueTriton had "not sufficiently demonstrated" it had met certain requirements, including minimizing "adverse effects on groundwater aquifers and their surface expressions."
"I am hereby notifying BlueTriton Brands, Inc. that all use of Forest System lands, including the operation and maintenance of a water collection/water transmission system on (US Forest Service) lands, must stop immediately."
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But BlueTriton, which has denied its operations were harmful to the environment, said it has "continuously operated under a series of special use permits for nearly a century" and on Tuesday filed legal action against the U.S. Forest Service.
In a statement given to The Los Angeles Times, it said: "This denial has no legal merit, is unsupported by the facts, and negatively impacts the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians."
This tribe uses some of the water that passes through the pipeline, relying on it for firefighting needs, according to BlueTriton. The tribe declined to comment to the LA Times.
It also told KTLA5: "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," the spokesperson said. "Credible evidence to the contrary has never been presented."
Newsweek has contacted the Forest Service and BlueTriton for any further comment.
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