The citizens of Mt. Shasta have developed an extraordinary ordinance, set to be voted on in the next special or general election, that would prohibit corporations such as Nestle and Coca-Cola from extracting water from the local aquifer. But this is only the beginning. The ordinance would also ban energy-giant PG&E, and any other corporation, from regional cloud seeding, a process that disrupts weather patterns through the use of toxic chemicals such as silver iodide. More generally, it would refuse to recognize corporate personhood, explicitly place the rights of community and local government above the economic interests of multinational corporations, and recognize the rights of nature to exist, flourish, and evolve. Mt. Shasta is not alone.Rather, it is part of a (so far) quiet municipal movement making its way across the United States in which communities are directly defying corporate rule and affirming the sovereignty of local government.

The ordinance contains a "bill of rights" for residents and a prohibition on extracting water or disposing of wastewater by natural gas companies, according to Dr. Thomas Jiunta, who lives in Lehman Township and is co-founder of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition. "It makes corporations subservient to the population," he said. "We're asserting residents of the Township of Lehman actually have rights under the Constitution, but to be a corporation is a privilege." The ordinance, commissioned by the GDAC, is similar to one drawn up for Pittsburgh by the same organization, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, Jiunta said. The ordinance asserts that "It shall be unlawful for any corporation, to import water into Lehman (Township) for use in the extraction of subsurface natural gas or to deposit waste water, 'produced' water, 'frack' water, brine or other materials, chemicals or by-products of natural gas extraction, into the land, air or waters within Lehman Township."

With an anticipated Sept. 10 hearing in Yreka Superior Court, both sides in the Measure A water ordinance battle have filed deposition and writs supporting their positions on the argument. Measure A was pulled off the ballot by county clerk Colleen Setzer after it garnered the required number of signatures and the Mount Shasta City Council voted several times to let the voters decide.

Mount Shasta’s Measure A, removed from November’s ballot earlier this month, has generated an appeal of that decision by proponents and a response from the county – and the Siskiyou County Superior Court is now tasked with discerning whether the measure’s proponents followed elections procedure, whether or not County Clerk Colleen Setzer was the elections official for the city of Mount Shasta, and whether or not the court believes that the measure is constitutional.

On Friday, August 20, the Mt. Shasta Community Rights Project filed an elections complaint to restore Measure A to the 2010 general election ballot. Siskiyou County Clerk Colleen Setzer is denying Mt. Shasta voters the right to vote on “Measure A”, which was stripped from the city’s ballot earlier this week. The Measure, which would prohibit outside corporations from bulk water extraction and corporate cloud seeding, is the first ordinance of its kind in California because it is designed to assert the rights of residents over the rights of corporations.

Proponents of the Mt. Shasta ordinance say that it has far-reaching implications, both in protecting water and in empowering citizens; in the words of one resident testifying before the City Council on May 24, "this ordinance is the embryo of change for our state." Commenting on the potential of the ordinance to unite diverse interests, resident Molly Brown said, "People, regardless of their political or environmental inclinations, can agree that we should decide what happens where we live."

An ordinance outlawing water bottling plants and cloud seeding in Mount Shasta will be on the November ballot. The Mount Shasta City Council voted 5-0 Monday night to put the proposed ordinance to public vote. The only other option would have been to enact it into law. “This is about our right to water,” said Ami Marcus with the Mount Shasta Community Rights Project.

Mount Shasta city staff is busy working on a special report regarding the proposed Mt. Shasta Community Water Rights Ordinance, which was ordered by council on April 26. The report will be presented to the council on Monday, May 24, said city manager Kevin Plett.

The council heard dozens of passionate appeals during public comments, then voted unanimously to order a special report on the Mt. Shasta Community Water Rights and Self Governance Ordinance, which will appear on the November election ballot. The Ordinance was brought to council after 700 certified voter signatures were gathered from residents.

Nestle Waters North America's Poland Spring subsidiary finished removing the last of more than a dozen test and monitoring wells near the border of Shapleigh and Newfield on Friday, a Poland Spring official confirmed.

Residents Saturday approved a rights-based ordinance that prohibits water extraction by corporations.

Residents ignore the Board of Selectmen's position and vote to stop Poland Spring – and others – from harvesting their water.

"This is a civil rights (ordinance). This is rights-based law," she said. Part of the ordinance proclaims "the corporatization of water supplies in this community ... would constitute tyranny and usurpation; and that we are therefore duty bound ... to oppose such tyranny ... ."

A sleeping giant awoke in Nottingham on March 15 as people took back their rights.

At Town Meeting last Saturday, Nottingham voted on a proposed Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance.

NOTTINGHAM – Residents fighting to prevent a water-bottling plant from being built on Route 4 are taking a new tack by focusing on the issue of local control.

The Nottingham Tea Party held a planning session to determine the steps necessary to educate the public about the proposed warrant article concerning local control of resources.

In 1819, the Supreme Court declared for the first time that corporations are entitled to protection under the Constitution. They use those rights to site polluting feedlots, dump toxic sludge, build big-box stores, and take municipal water to sell, all whether citizens want them to or not.

The water rights ordinance that placed Barnstead on the front lines last year in the fight to preserve the rights of towns to govern themselves may soon become an even stronger document.