Water bottling plant impact will be huge

Developer Lew Weaver said in a press release he’s “pleased that DEQ has validated our assertion that this (the Creston water bottling) plant will have no adverse effect on human health or the environment, and that fears of high volumes of truck traffic, noise and diminished property values are misplaced” with the production level proposed.

Does Mr. Weaver not know that his projected production level is common knowledge to the vast majority of the VOTERS in the Flathead Valley. Does he not know that over 12,600 residents of the valley petitioned against his proposed bottling plant, and that as many more valley residents, who were not eligible to sign the recent petition against his plans, stated their objections. Is Mr. Weaver asserting that the DEQ is qualified to determine property values or assess the level of truck traffic that will be required to ship the quantity of water requested in the DNRC permit application?

This is what we DO know.

FACT ONE: Page 24 of Mr. Weaver’s DNRC permit No. 76LJ30102978 by the Montana Artesian Water Company reads as follows: After filtration/disinfection, water is conveyed to the Monobloc model RFC 18-18- 6 rotary rinser-filler-capper machines. These machines are capable of rinsing and filling 20 ounce water bottles at a rate of 7,000 per hour. Ultimately, Montana Artesian Water Company INTENDS to use up to 20 of these machines to produce 140,000 water bottles per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (1.2 Billion water bottles; 588.08 AF bottled per year).

FACT TWO: Page 24, line 51. The Applicant is planning full build-out of the water bottling plant in stages. Upon FULL build-out, the Applicant plans to bottle the entire volume of 588.08 AF. (1.2 Billion water bottles per year).

If anyone is in doubt about how much all that water will weigh, let’s make it simple. The stated and planned production level will yield a shipping requirement of 256.267 TONS of water to be shipped every HOUR, 10 hours per day, six day per week, 52 weeks of the year. That is if Mr. Weaver adheres to his stated shipping schedule of 10 hours per day, six days each week as he personally stated.

So let’s take it one step further. The EPA estimates the typical weight of an un-laden Class 8 tractor-trailer combination is on the order of 35,000 pounds. While payloads typically max out at about 40,000 pounds (20 tons). Anyone with a fifth-grade understanding of math would conclude that to ship the 15,376 tons of water produced each week in a 60 hour shipping schedule would require 256.267 tons of bottled water to be shipped each hour of the 10 hour shipping day, it will require a minimum of 12 trucks to leave the dock every hour of the 10-hour shipping day, six day per week, 52 weeks a year! And do not overlook the fact that each and every one of those trucks that leave the dock will return for reloading. Since the empty trucks returning to the dock are not “shipping” anything, will they be subject to the 10-hour schedule? And Mr. Weaver contends that this will have no effect on the peace, tranquility or land values in the path of this intrusion, i.e., the gravel roads exiting the proposed plant and the ensuing dust, the commute or tourist traffic on highway 35 through Bigfork and on down to Polson, or the impending need for additional traffic signals at the intersections of Jaquette Road and Highway 35 as well as Highway 82 and 35.

Will the county commissioners place the tax burden for these expenses on the bottling plant or on WE the taxpayers? Have the county commissioners ever considered the loads required for shipment, the roads to be traveled on or the destination of the water removed from OUR aquifers. Did the county commissioners consider the fact that, according to the 2015 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report for the city of Kalispell, paragraph four “Where Does Your Water Come From? And How Is it Treated” and paragraph five “The water YOU (city of Kalispell) drink comes from multiple GROUNDWATER source wells.” Yes, for those families who are on the city of Kalispell water system, you also get YOUR water from a well.

Mr. Weaver’s DNRC permit clearly states the intentions of the applicant. We take these intentions as facts. Anyone, county commissioners included, willing to read and understand the permit as written would understand the ramifications. The illusive innuendos of the developers of the bottling plant are meant to placate the fears of their objectors, but the stated facts tell us otherwise. The 12,600-plus petitioners who disapproved of this water bottling plant (as well as the DEQ and DNRC’s shocking disregard for the concerns of the citizens of Flathead and Lake Counties) are not fooled. It may well be that if this bottling plant comes to fruition, and with the production level applied for, it will be the second largest water bottling plant in the United States with unrelenting impact on the people of Flathead and Lake counties.

As Mahatma Gandhi so eloquently stated, “There is enough water for the need, but not enough for the greed.”

McGunagle is a Kalispell area resident.