So, we’re running out of water here in California, eh? Residents and businesses face the new reality of dwindling reservoirs and water restrictions. Is it time to play the blame game? Hardly.

Perhaps our take on climate warming is all wrong. While we try to convince Republicans and other naysayers that the threat is not political, but actually forthcoming, part of it has sneaked in already. Look at it this way, where do trends begin in the U.S. of A? Out here, dude! So Cali has a drought going, soon every state is going to want one. A little humor before some upsetting facts.

Before we start blaming the heavens for causing all this H two O havoc, let’s examine the possibilities of us being our own enemy. Let’s begin by that old proverbial challenge – follow the money.

Worldwide, inhabitants of all shades, fork over nearly $40 billion bucks to drink bottled water. Guess where you can find some of the most pristine springs gushing liquid gold in some of the country’s most beautiful places? C-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a!

Multinational corporations are hitting hundreds of small and idyllic villages in our state’s mountains to gain control of that most precious resource – agua. By coercing these communities, usually with limited economic means, the cunning corporations have become a vital part of a growing trend to privatize public water resources for obscene monetary gains in the ever expanding bottled water commerce.

Ever seen majestic Mt. Shasta up north or Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains? You better see both beautiful places sooner than later if the existing conditions persist. Something else about these two great destinations, they are both providers of millions of gallons of water that is sold all over God’s masterpiece. And just when you thought that part of the water business was old hat, the same corporations almost sucking the Golden State dry, want more.

Much more.

California’s Water Enemy numero uno is Nestlé, which controls one-third of the U.S. bottled water industry and hawks 70 different brand names — such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Perrier, Poland Spring and Ice Mountain — which it draws from 75 springs located all over the country, admits it prefers California’s water.

Nestlé has even tapped into the capitol’s public water supply in recent years. According to a protest at the plant last month, the information handed out stated that the city of Sacramento gets paid approximately $186 per 250,000 gallons of water. Then they re-bottle the water and is sold as Arrowhead Water and Pure Life, two main brands – and the profit equals approximately 10,000 percent for Nestlé’s at the City of Sacramento’s expense. Totally obscene profit figures.

Back in 2013, protesters stated, the Sacramento facility used 50 million gallons of Sacramento municipal water to bottle the Pure Life product and for plant operations. They said the company trucked in 32 million gallons of water from springs in the Sierra foothills to bottle Arrowhead in 2013. (Nestlé says the spring sources for Arrowhead Mountain Spring water bottled at the Sacramento plant comes from Lukens Spring in Placer County, Sopiago Spring in El Dorado County, Sugar Pine Spring in Tuolumne County and Arcadia Spring in Napa County).

In 2003, the company tried to return to the Mt. Shasta area for seconds, Nestlé had its eye on McCloud, located in the shadow of the snow-capped icon. The former timber town had been learning to stand on its own feet again after the lumber companies bottomed out and took off during the economic crisis. Its nearly 1,500 residents only had a four-student high school, but one thing it proudly talked about was an abundance of water — pristine spring water that originates from Shasta’s glaciers and feeds some of the world’s best fishing rivers.

McCloud learned that Nestlé intended to build a million-square-foot water-bottling facility in town without any public input or environmental impact assessment. They also discovered that the multinational honchos wanted a 100-year contract to pump 1,600 acre-feet of spring water a year and a seemingly unlimited amount of groundwater. The locals also learned that the corporation actually hoodwinked the folks with promises of many and outstanding employment opportunities.

Nobody knows how in the world a five-member McCloud Service District Board made a decision to grant the contract which they later announced at a district meeting. Immediately if not sooner, the residents caught off guard by the company’s concerns, begin organizing, litigating and educating.

It paid off. As a result, five years later, the water activists won a decisive victory when the bottled water giant announced it would kill its water-bottling contract with the McCloud Community Services. Thus it came to be that one of the biggest and most voracious of the water corporations lost its bid to further dry-up our state.

Lesson learned? Quien sabe. But we’re willing to bet it’ll be a rainy day in July the next time any of our state’s pristine municipalities with an abundance of water lets mendacious water execs from corporations like Nestlé’s come into their towns.