Sugar Pine Spring Water faces fines of almost $225,000 for collecting and transporting the water to commercial bottling companies despite being ordered by regulators to stop tapping Sierra Nevada Spring Water. With California in its fourth year of historic drought, residents are being told to cutback, and thousands of farmers and other users such as Sugar Pine have been notified to stop using waters as streams and rivers run dry.
According to Mother Jones, Sugar Pine Spring Water, a California company listed as a certified source of Starbucks bottled water (Ethos) was accused last Tuesday of illegal diversion and bulk delivery of water in 2014-2015 by the Californian State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). This is the first enforcement action taken against a bottled-water supplier since the state declared a drought emergency in January 2014.
Starbucks has already promised to switch suppliers however Sugar Pine allegedly continued to take water from the state. State investigators said that the owner, Scott Fahey, refused to show them the company's operations in Tuolumne County as reported in Kubaradio.
The SWRCB already notified Sugar Pine owner, Fahey last year that no water was available under his rights due to extreme drought. The company was again notified April of this year. After the company delayed making its water collection site available to SWRCB agents for inspections, investigators deployed surveillance cameras on public roads around the area. Surveillance cameras outside the business revealed that 99 Sugar Pine tanker trucks were caught taking water from pipes that connect to the Tuolumne River watershed and the Don Pedro Reservoir. Local farmers and residents of San Francisco heavily rely on these two sources of water.
The company has 20 days to request a hearing. If the company fails to request one, the state will issue a final cease-and-desist order which carries a fine of around $10,000 a day or referral to the attorney general. The Division of Water Rights recommends that Sugar Pines should be fined $224,875 for ignoring the original request last year. California has issued a cease-and-desist order towards Sugar Pine.
Fahey did not respond to CNBC or to any media with regards to these allegations. His attorney William "Bart" Barringer also declined to comment in an email, already anticipating a hearing before the state water board.