Wal-Mart Admonished For Selling Sacramento Municipal Water

The latest target of #droughtshaming is Wal-Mart.

As California struggles through a historic drought, residents have taken to social media to complain about water-wasters. The most recent company to get shamed is Wal-Mart, since the company bottles Sacramento municipal water and sells it.

"The world’s largest retailer sources some of its bottled water in drought-stricken California, eliciting complaints. But it does not seem inclined to follow the lead of Starbucks, which [in May] said it would stop the practice," Fortune recently reported.

For Wal-Mart, bottling city water is a good deal."Sacramento sells water to a bottler, DS Services of America, at 99 cents for every 748 gallons—the same rate as other commercial and residential customers. That water is then bottled and sold at Walmart for 88 cents per gallon, meaning that $1 of water from Sacramento turns into $658.24 for Walmart and DS Services," according to CBS Sacramento.

Labels on the bottles reveal where the water originated. "While the label reads Great Value, the fine print reveals the bottled water is anything but a deal, especially for Sacramento residents," the report said.

Public relations expert Doug Elmets said the retail giant made a public relations misstep by bottling Sacramento's water.

“Either they were unaware, uninformed or unintentionally did this,” he told CBS. "It could be all three of those. Whatever it is, it’s a bad move and they need to correct it and they need to do it quickly.”

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company is very concerned about the effects of the drought.

“We share those concerns and are tracking it closely,” the spokesperson said, per The Guardian. “Our commitment to sustainability includes efforts to minimize water use in our facilities. We have and continue to work with our suppliers to act responsibly while meeting the needs of customers who count on us across California.”

New restrictions on water bottling are needed, according to Adam Scow, the California director of Food & Water Watch.

"It’s only logical that as the governor has asked all Californians to reduce their water consumption that he holds extractive industries like bottled water companies to the same standard, yet he hasn’t asked anything of them,” he told The Guardian.

There is meager state-level oversight for water bottlers. "No state agency is tracking exactly how much water is used by all of the bottled water plants in California, or monitoring the effects on water supplies and ecosystems statewide. The California Department of Public Health regulates 108 bottled water plants in the state, collecting information on water quality and the sources tapped. But the agency says it does not require companies to report how much water they use," The Desert Sun reported.