Maine Mother and Son take on Nestlé—Flood Governor’s Office with Petitions

A Fryeburg resident and her 9-year-old son are leading a protest of a plan to give Nestlé Waters access to the town’s water supply for up to 45 years. On Wednesday,  Nickie Sekera and her son Luke delivered petitions with more than 137,000 signatures to Maine Governor Paul LePage.

The contract under consideration would extend rights to the town’s spring water to Nestlé Waters and its subsidiary Poland Spring until at least 2033, with options to continue extracting spring water until the year 2058.  Nestlé currently pumps out about 600,000 gallons of water a day from an aquifer in Fryeburg.

Sekera and her son were joined in front of the Governor’s Office Wednesday by a group of Fryeburg area residents known as ‘Community Water Justice’ as well as representatives from ‘Food & Water Watch-Maine.’

The group delivered 137,000 petition signatures from around Maine and the U.S. along with a personal letter from Luke to Governor LePage asking him to intervene in the matter.  The Maine Public Utilities Commission is expected to decide this summer whether or not to approve the contract between Nestlé Waters of North America and the Fryeburg Water Company.

Luke and his mom started their petition drive at Change.org.