Statement on Acadia Spring Water Safety

For Immediate Release

September 3, 2021

In the summer of 2019, there was a mass recall of bottled water sold under the store brand Acadia across New England. A bottling facility, Spring Hill Farm Dairy, was responsible for the packaged water with elevated levels of toxic, man-man chemicals known as PFAS. Despite this finding, many cases of the tainted water were still on store shelves for weeks, with news reports warning potential customers about the danger.

We have been attempting to contact two super market chains, Giant and Stop and Shop, to request information on the present safety of Acadia water. Both retailers, after requesting and receiving specific serial numbers to identify the source of the water, deferred to the bottlers for this information. This is not acceptable by any means. Customers have a right to know about the safety of the water they are purchasing directly from these retailers. Big super market chains should provide regular, updated water testing reports on their websites for interested consumers.  Apart from their bottlers/suppliers, large retail chains should periodically test their water themselves and not rely solely on suppliers’ water quality data.

Perhaps the well-paid CEOs of these companies—Nicholas Bertram of Giant and Gordon Reid of Stop and Shop—can tell us why they are not responding.

We need to hear from you immediately.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Matthew Marran, Center for the Study of Responsive Law

 

CC: Administrator Michael S. Regan, EPA

Janet Woodcock, Acting Commissioner FDA

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, USDA

Brenda Mallory, Council on Environmental Quality, The White House

Manish Bapna, President and CEO, NRDC

Johanna Chao Kreilick, President, Union of Concerned Scientists

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food and Water Watch

Robert Wendelgass, President, Clean Water Action.

Seth M. Siegel, Author, Troubled Water: What’s Wrong with What We Drink