Forest Service Orders Company Selling Arrowhead Water to Shut Down California Pipeline

A worker loads bottled water for delivery at the Arrowhead Bottled Water Delivery center in Los Angeles on Sept. 20, 2023. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Forest Service has denied the company that sells Arrowhead bottled water a permit allowing the use of water in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California, prompting a legal battle over control of the company’s equipment and infrastructure.

In a July 26 letter, San Bernardino National Forest District Ranger Michael Nobles told BlueTriton Brands—the parent company of Arrowhead—that its application for use and occupancy of land in the San Bernardino National Forest had been denied.

Nobles said that the conditions of the area where water is collected in Strawberry Canyon had “significantly changed since our last evaluation in 2018.”

According to the letter, BlueTriton is required to demonstrate “that the water extracted is excess to the current and reasonably foreseeable future needs of forest resources.”

Nobles said BlueTriton had not provided sufficient information regarding the use of water piped from the forest to prove the company complied with California law. The company is required to stop using its water pipeline and develop and submit a plan within 12 weeks to remove all of its equipment from the forest.

“Compliance with State law in regards to water rights and uses is a precondition to the issuance of any special use permit,” he wrote.

The forest ranger also said that 94–98 percent of the total diverted monthly water volume was delivered to the Arrowhead Springs Hotel for “undisclosed purposes, rather than for the purpose of supplying bottled drinking water as described in the permit and application.”

The hotel is not owned by BlueTriton. It was purchased by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in 2016, according to California Real Estate News.

On Aug. 6, BlueTriton filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, D.C., against the Forest Service.

“This denial has no legal merit, is unsupported by the facts, and negatively impacts the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, who rely on our renewable and sustainable water operations in Strawberry Canyon for water use and fire suppression needs,” a spokesperson for BlueTriton Brands told The Epoch Times.

San Bernardino Mountains covered in snow are seen from a plane on approach of the Los Angeles airport on March 9, 2023. Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images

The battle over access to Strawberry Canyon’s spring water has been ongoing. Nonprofit environmental group Save Our Forest Association filed legal action in June against the Forest Service alleging the agency allowed BlueTriton to take “substantially all of the water” from the canyon, negatively impacting the surrounding forest and communities, according to the filing.

The nonprofit views the Forest Service’s decision to deny BlueTriton’s special use permit as a victory.

“The USFS has acted within its authority, following the evidence and the requirements of the special use permit,” Hugh Bialecki, president of Save Our Forest Association, told The Epoch Times.

He said his nonprofit intends to work cooperatively with forest rangers on the restoration of Strawberry Canyon.

Meanwhile, BlueTriton told The Epoch Times that the U.S. Forest Service had agreed to issue a 30-day stay on its order to ensure that the water needs of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians were met.

The company also said it worked with the Forest Service for almost a decade to collect data and fund research that indicated “no material difference” between environmental and habitat conditions between Strawberry Canyon and other unused watersheds.

“These studies prove that our careful stewardship of the water and land for over 100 years has not negatively affected the Strawberry Canyon environment,” said BlueTriton’s spokesperson.