LETTER: Bottling plant is symptom of a larger issue

It has been quite an effort by the neighboring property owners to draw attention to the impacts of the bottling plant. While the effort is more than justified it might be for naught. As previously said unless there is some technical, scientific, or other like factors, related to the state permit, that can counter what has been submitted by the applicant, the application will likely be approved.

Now with that being said, putting an industrial bottling plant in the middle of a rural/agricultural area is a bad idea for a number of reasons that have been already stated.

You may have noticed that our county commissioners have been very quiet regarding this controversy. One would think that they should somehow be involved, but they probably won’t be. It is apparent that the commissioners have the taken the approach that whatever the property owner wants to do is their right, regardless of what the impacts will be to the neighbors or community.

For those of you who live in rural areas, you need to understand that under the current thinking of the commissioners something like this bottling plant, or worse, could end up in your back yard without the ability for you to seek recourse from the commissioners.

We all hold our property rights as being very important to us, as we should. But we also need to be good neighbors as well as think about what we want this county to be like for the next several generations.

—Lynn Rued, Kalispell