Over the years, numerous bottling firms and breweries have set up shop in Sacramento.
To date, none of these bottlers — from Alhambra to Coca-Cola — has triggered much opposition for the products they sell or the water rates they pay. Yet both of those issues have bubbled to the surface with the arrival of Nestle Waters to Sacramento.
Nestlé was welcomed by Mayor Kevin Johnson when it signed a lease in July for a building at the Florin Fruitridge Industrial Park. Since then, the reception has been less welcoming. Activists have targeted Nestlé for its efforts to site a bottling plant in McCloud, in Northern California, and for its threat to sue Miami-Dade County, Fla., over ads promoting city tap water.
In recent days, the effort to block Nestlé has gained momentum. Councilman Kevin McCarty is pushing for an urgency ordinance that would apply to new bottling plants, including, possibly, Nestlé. On Friday, a city building inspector issued a stop-work order on Nestlé's project in south Sacramento, effectively halting it.
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