Nestle sold $7.7 billion dollars worth of bottled water last year, making it the world’s largest bottled water company. They bought Michigan Republicans off and took fresh water in western Michigan. States such as Maine and Texas operate under a remarkably lax rule from the 1800s called “absolute capture,” which lets landowners take all the groundwater they want. Michigan, New York, and other states have stricter laws, allowing “reasonable use,” which means property owners can extract water as long as it doesn’t unreasonably affect other wells or the aquifer system. Laws vary even within states.