Thanks to The Ark Valley Voice for this post. Lee Hart is out of town, and we appreciate the courtesy and support from Sterling and his team. The Voice hit the valley in print form this week, and looks great. You will find them around town. We will be following up with more details on this great project in the coming days. For more information please visit The Voice online.
Salida, CO
August 5, 2009
The Chaffee County Commissioners held a special meeting on Wednesday, August 5, to continue deliberations on the Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) application for permits which would allow the company to extract approximately 200-acre feet of spring water annually.
County Attorney Jenny Davis opened the standing-room-only meeting by announcing two outstanding issues, one of which was raised by the applicant, the other by the formally-organized opposition group, Chaffee Citizens for Sustainability (CCFS).
NWNA submitted a request to put off a decision by the Commissioners until such time as the contractual conditions for the permit could be “word-smithed” with input from NWNA. To some, such overtures appeared to be the company angling for negotiations. Possibly anticipating such an accusation, NWNA Regional Manager Bruce Lauerman stated that, “We’re not writing these conditions, but we have some suggestions.”
CCFS’s John Graham requested that any potential decision be held off until a public-comment period could be held for community input on the contract conditions. Graham suggested that the public and various consulting firms should be able to offer input on conditions of such magnitude. The Commissioners denied both requests.
Regarding the requests, Commissioner Tim Glenn stated, “I thought several weeks ago we closed public hearing. We deliberated on testimony and the issues and we came up with direction for the Staff. These are our conditions, not Nestlé’s, not the public’s. Nestlé has had the opportunity to offer input at anytime during this process. If we open it, we open it to both or not at all.”
The Commissioners chose instead to use the morning going over the contract which the Staff had been directed to draw up at the previous meeting and which was disseminated on Friday, July 31.
The thrust of the most recent meeting consisted of the various conditions being read by the County’s attorneys and Staff who offered clarification and insight. Conditions were condensed, clarified, and altered as the Commissioner’s deemed necessary.
Most of the changes fit within the parameters of a) ensuring that the County accrued no negative fiscal impact (e.g. NWNA will reimburse the County for any expenditures needed to monitor Aurora source waters, or as another example, any deficits borne by the County as a result of Chaffee Public Services assisting in an accident caused by a NWNA trucker would also be paid by the company) and b) that the conditions were both reasonable and achievable within specific time frames.
Other issues were put on hold until the Board could give them more thought or the Staff could consult with NWNA representatives. Those issues included items such as:
1. Whether a specific contingency-fund account should be set up into which NWNA would put money to cover the cost of “unexpected” events such as litigation, or if those monies should be included in an “evergreen” account used for recurring expenses. Additionally, Commissioner Giese questioned whether the proposed $500,000 in contingency funds would be enough, or if it should be upwardly revised to something in the ball bark of between two-hundred thousand and one million dollars.
2. How the $500,000 dollar endowment donated by NWNA should be used (whether it should be restricted to conservation or other specified fields) and if interest from the contingency-fund could be deposited into the endowment.
3. How to word a condition which would dictate that NWNA’s contracted trucking company use a minimum of 50% and strive for 100% employment from Chaffee County for the project’s truck drivers.
Although the public-comment period has expired, both the applicant and the public can still make comments and recommendations to County Staff by calling County Development Director, Don Reimer, at 719-530-5565.
The next meeting is scheduled for August 19, in the County Commissioner’s meeting room, 104 Crestone Ave., in Salida, beginning at 9 am.
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