For and Against: Egan Slough Zoning Iniitiative

Vote Yes on Egan Slough expansion

I am writing in regards to the bottling company in Creston.

I am concerned that the Egan Slough zoning initiative may fail on the reasoning that “it’s an individual’s rights to do what they want on their property.” That would be fine if it only affected that person’s property; however, this will affect the entire Flathead community for years to come.

Does this individual own the rights to the water that is taken from the aquifer under his property? The bottling company claims cleaning the bottles will have minimal waste emptying into the Flathead River. There is no such thing as minimal waste. The waste will pollute the waterways.

This bottling plant will also add more plastic bottles into our environment. Beverage companies can significantly impact communities with their bottling operations. They extract vast amounts of water, making huge profits with very little return to the community. They promise the operations will bring jobs but in reality they create very few jobs. What they do is put communities at risk of depleting their resources.

We all must stop this to save the Flathead community.

Vote YES on June 5 on the Egan Slough initiative, 17-01 —Joan DiPietro, Kalispell

Spot zoning is wrong and county might be sued, too

I am retired and support responsible planning and zoning. I worked for 16 years for Lake County as a planner, and the last 22 years as a land manager for Plum Creek. In both those positions I tried to balance a landowner’s right to develop his property with the public’s right to have a say in how their neighborhood grows and develops. But zoning needs to be pro-active so landowners know the rules of the game when making investment decisions concerning their property.

Initiative 17-01 is reactive, as the landowner has spent time and money acquiring the necessary permits to develop a water-bottling operation on land that is not zoned. A vote by the entire county to force 530 acres into a zoning district is wrong and appears to be spot zoning by popular vote. My guess is if the initiative passes, the landowner will have a claim against the county for a regulatory taking and the taxpayers may have to pay the legal costs to defend against a claim and possibly have to pay for damages.

I share the concerns about the potential growth and related impact of water extraction and bottling in the valley. However, this should be handled proactively by a responsible countywide study and public discussion, and followed by a process for appropriate zoning that covers all land in the county. I doubt this one operation will have much impact , as was determined by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Zoning is an important land-use tool, but needs to be used with careful consideration to property rights. A countywide vote to force a single landowner into a small zoning district is a bad precedent. This initiative is not a reasonable use of government zoning power and has serious implications to restrict all landowners and land use in the county. Citizens for responsible planning and zoning should vote AGAINST Initiative 17-01 .—Jerry Sorensen, Bigfork

Protect water by new zoning

Ask yourself ... why do I love Montana? Is it the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the clean air, the outdoor recreation opportunities? Is it all of the above?

For most Montanans, it is all of these.

Our clean air and water are of the utmost importance. Montana boasts the most pristine freshwater rivers and lakes in the country.

OUR Flathead River, and Flathead Lake, are currently being threatened by a landowner who wants to sell OUR natural resource for HIS huge profit. There is no consideration for his neighbors, the neighbors’ wells, the air quality from the thousands of semi trucks hauling the stolen water, the health of the river or the surrounding lakes from discharging plastic waste directly into OUR waterways.

He says he wants to build a bottling plant for HIS grandchildren. What about your grandchildren, what about mine? I want OUR rivers and lakes to remain pure for ALL of our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

If his water-bottling plant comes to fruition, our clean water is in peril.

Our water is not for sale. Our water needs to stay pure, where it is, for everyone to enjoy, for generations to come. Our water belongs to every Montanan. It is not for sale to the highest greedy bidder. Our water does not belong to one person. Period.

Do not be complacent on this issue. There is a simple way to halt this greed from stealing our water ... VOTE!

On June 5, we ALL have the opportunity to take a stand against greed. Vote FOR ballot initiative 17-01 to expand the Egan Slough Zoning District. By voting FOR expanding the Egan Slough Zoning District, you will be protecting OUR most valuable resource, OUR water.

As Montanans, we have the opportunity to come together in a momentous way. We have the power to protect what is all of OURS. Vote FOR initiative 17-01! —Angie McCrorie, Kalispell

To be fair, put the same restrictions on your own property

To those who enjoy their property rights:

Please understand how critical this Egan Slough Zoning Initiative is to property rights in Flathead County. At first, those promoting the initiative led us to believe that this is about the water-bottling plant. Nowhere in the ballot initiative does it say anything about the bottling plant and in fact there have been several legal opinions saying that the water bottling will continue to operate whether this initiative passes or not. This initiative is about restrictively zoning property in the Creston area.

Now, they are promoting the idea that this will save farming and water in Flathead County. In fact, the ability to save farming in any community goes way beyond restrictively zoning property. However, I want to challenge everyone that has fallen for this rhetoric and believes that the regulations in the Egan Slough Zoning District are the salvation of farming and water in Flathead County.

If you vote in favor of this Zoning Initiative you should be willing to place those same restrictions on your property through a deed restriction. Through the course of my work I read deeds and easements every day and this would actually be very easy to do. I think that if you are willing to place any type of regulations on someone else’s property you should be willing to place those same restrictions on your own property.

If this is asking too much, I suggest at least reading the Egan Slough Zoning Regulations — and know exactly the restrictions a vote in favor of the initiative would place on someone else’s property.

The process to zone property is guided by Montana state statutes and further spelled out in Flathead County regulations. This process contains a very specific due process that must be followed. This zoning initiative makes an end run around all of those due process steps, from proper notices, applicant reports, planning staff reports, public meetings, deliberations and even occasional court hearings.

If you value your property rights, I encourage you to vote AGAINST this zoning initiative and let the due process work its way through the proper channels. —Charles Lapp, Columbia Falls

Bottled water is just trouble

Bottled water is like booze and gambling. We could survive without it. We can’t, however, survive without our groundwater in the Flathead Valley in our historically agricultural and incomparably scenic Creston area. It doesn’t seem ethical for Lew Weaver’s Montana Artesian Water Co. to draw 230 million gallons of groundwater per year for Weaver’s own personal gain, leaving his neighbors to drill their wells deeper. What did they do wrong — trust Lew Weaver as a neighbor maybe?

I believe there are currently inadequate review processes in place in our state for large-scale bottling plants. Large bottlers such as Nestle appear to be using the lack of regulations in rural states like Montana “to get their foot in the door.” It is likely the Weaver family will eventually sell out to a company like Nestle, and we lack regulations to limit their expansion.

The Department of Environmental Quality “Fact Sheet” on the bottling plant had no data on “Local and State Tax Base, Demand for Government Services, Private Property Impacts, and Health and Human Safety,” for which “No significant impacts have been identified.”

The World Health Organization has announced it will review the long-term risks of consuming microplastics.” (Parade.com, May 2018). Effluent from the plant containing microplastics from the bottle rinsing process will be flowing into the Flathead River, and the threatened species identified by Wildlife and Parks, bull trout, will be there. Maybe bull trout would thrive on consuming microplastics? I don’t think so.

There are so many unanswered questions about the sinister possibility of lack of water for drinking and agriculture, dust, traffic, safety hazards, and the taxes required to provide infrastructure for all those trucks.

I trust you care. Vote to increase the farmland boundaries by 530 acres. Vote FOR the Egan Slough Initiative 17-01 on June 5. —Jenny La Sorte, Kalispell