The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America's water to sell in plastic bottles

Creek beds are bone dry and once-gushing springs are reduced to trickles as fights play out around the nation over control of nation's freshwater supply

The network of clear streams comprising California's Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestli(C) siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.

Though it's on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestli(C) Waters' 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.