Nestlé Waters North America Sponsors Mill Creek Revitalization Project

On Saturday, July 25 more than two dozen volunteers equipped with shovels, rakes and crowbars removed litter and debris from Mill Creek, a tributary to the Santa Ana River located in Chino, CA.

As part of Nestlé Waters North America’s (NWNA) flagship Healthy Waterways Initiative, the Arrowhead Brand Mountain Spring Water brand has sponsored a series of such clean-ups with partner, Inland Empire Waterkeeper (IEWK).

IEWK is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing and protecting the quality of the waterways within the Upper Santa Ana River Watershed through advocacy, education, research, restoration, and enforcement.

Spanning nearly 3,000 square miles in Southern California, the Santa Ana River Watershed has been polluted by urban runoff and litter.  Water quality of the Santa Ana River is a concern because the 101 mile long river eventually drains into the Pacific Ocean via Huntington Beach. Litter flows downstream into the Pacific Ocean where a vortex propelled by ocean currents has cumulated a massive gyre of marine debris known as the Great Pacific garbage patch.

Mark Cranmer, Senior Distribution Manager participated in the Mill Creek cleanup with his wife. Cranmer remarked on the creek’s poor water quality and results of the cleanup. 

“One thing that stood out to my wife and I was how dirty the water was and some of the things we pulled out - from a shopping cart, syringes, sleeping bag and tarps,” said Cranmer. “With what we did in just a few hours, we were able to get that water moving again and allow nature to do its thing.”

Natural Resource Manager, Larry Lawrence spearheaded the volunteer effort.  In the video, Mr. Lawrence recognized the importance of identifying and rooting out the source of the pollution.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is get the environment clean and keep it clean, but we’re also identifying the impact of the trash that we see.  Where is the trash coming from?  And so one of our goals is to go to those users upstream and talk to them about controlling their trash to keep it out of these sites,” said Mr. Lawrence.

Wells and Springs Supervisor Tam Pham participated in the clean-up and explained why restoration efforts such as these demonstrate NWNA’s commitment to responsible water stewardship.

“We all live here in Southern California and the water from the mountains runs into the rivers which goes down into Orange County, so everyone is connected through the water,” said Mr. Pham.

Click here to watch a video summarizing the event.

About Nestlé Waters North America’s Corporate Citizenship: Creating Shared Value
Nestlé Waters North America is built on the premise that success lies in being a responsible leader by creating value for consumers, communities, employees and other key stakeholders. We describe this as Creating Shared Value – a fundamental way of doing business. Our Corporate Citizenship goals in the areas of water, sustainability and community are pursued within a framework of Creating Shared Value.

About Nestlé Waters North America
Nestlé Waters North America provides people with an unrivaled portfolio of bottled waters for healthy hydration. Brands such as Nestlé Pure Life®, Poland Spring®, Perrier® and San Pellegrino® have driven Nestlé Waters North America to be third largest non-alcoholic beverage company by volume in the U.S. Based in Stamford, Connecticut with 7,500 employees, Nestle Waters is reducing its environmental footprint across operations. The company is also committed to creating shared value and being a good neighbor in the 140 communities where it operates in the U.S. and Canada.