Nestlé wants a piece of arid Chaffee County–our water. The company, one of the world’s largest producers of bottled water, plans to pump 200 acre-feet of groundwater, enough to supply 400 to 600 families each year from springs that pour into the Arkansas River just upstream of Browns Canyon.
From there, Nestlé will pipe the water five miles to Highway 285, load it into tanker trucks, and haul the liquid around 130 miles to their new bottling plant in Denver.
I’ve quit drinking bottled water. It’s so wasteful: Up to three quarts of water are used for each quart bottled. Too, it consumes some 67 million barrels of oil annually on its journey from source to consumer, and sends about two million tons of plastic water bottles to landfills.
It’s especially wasteful where water is scarce and in great demand. Those environmental costs are not on the agenda here in Chaffee County, however.
Our Board of Commissioners is limited to considering two basic issues: whether Nestlé’s plans promote the “general welfare” of our county’s citizens, and protect its environment, economy, and communities; and whether to grant a special-use permit for the pipeline and loading facility.
The second issue is relatively straight-forward: it involves analyzing concrete concerns including construction mitigation, traffic, rights-of-way, weed management, public access, and open space.
The first is the tricky one, demanding thoughtful consideration of the public interest and the long-term impacts of Nestlé’s plans.
Nestlé is proposing to pump water from a high-quality aquifer whose boundaries and recharge rates are unknown, although Nestlé tells us it collects snowmelt and rainfall draining from the drier, rain-shadow side of the valley.
The company points to data showing that the historic average flows of the two springs they will tap are significantly higher than the amount they plan to pump, and to their own pumping tests showing no diminution in flow.
Historic data may no longer be relevant here: climate models show our part of the world growing radically warmer and drier. Salida tallied just over 5 inches of precipitation last year, barely 50 percent of the historic average; this year, we’ve gotten a dismal 30 percent.
Nestlé tested pumping levels for weeks, not years, after a winter with a record-high snowpack. Those data offer no assurances about what might happen over longer time spans, or in drought conditions.
The company must “replace” the 200 acre-feet a year they plan to export from the valley, but it won’t come from the same source, and as any trout knows, all water is not equal: quality, nutrients, and chemical “signature” vary widely.
Nestlé talks a good line, employing feel-good words like habitat restoration, community involvement, and the all-important dollars. But they’ve not committed to anything, and it’s clear from their figures that the vast amount of money will flow out of the county–along with our groundwater.
Westerners often say that water flows uphill toward money. Let’s show Nestlé that’s not true in Chaffee County.
Copyright 2009 Susan J. Tweit
The Nestle deal sounds like a definite lose/lose proposition for Chaffee County. More traffic and less water for no real jobs and relatively small amount of money. I don’t understand why the County would agree to sell off its precious resources, its soul, for so little to gain.
My husband and I recently watched the documentary, “Flow”. This video explains in detail and with graphic video just what the water barons of the world are doing to pure potable drinking water which should be available at reasonable cost to every living being on this planet. Water is not a commodity to be exploited. Without water no life of any kind can exist.
As for the Nestle corporation – they are in this for their own profit and they will tell the public whatever they think they need to in order to get what they want. When the water is gone the company will leave and when they go they will not only leave behind a land devoid of its precious water they will also leave behind all the trappings of their water mining business.
Bottled water is a humongous waste. If you want your water in bottles buy a few stainless steel bottles and fill them from your tap. If your tap water is chlorinated let the water sit overnight or boil it first to remove the chlorine and then bottle it in your own reusable bottles. You will not only be saving our precious water resources but saving the embedded energy that is part of the entire process of bottled water. You will be helping to save our planet.
Lindy – former Salida resident now living in AZ