On August 19, Chaffee County Board of County Commissioners unanimously directed County legal counsel to prepare resolutions of approval for Nestlé Waters North America to produce spring water for its Arrowhead Spring Water Brand.
Nestlé Waters has been actively engaged in Chaffee County since 2007. In November 2008, the company applied for a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) and 1041 Permit. The process has included numerous public hearings, extensive community dialogue, thousands of pages of scientific, economic, and ecological and environmental data collection and research. The process is thorough, comprehensive, and involves the review of a number of different independent consultants and agencies with diverse areas of expertise, and the review and approval of the Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of County Commissioners.
“Chaffee County is a special place, we appreciate the many community members we’ve had the privilege to meet who have provided valuable advice and helped to shape our project to better fit this community,” said Bruce Lauerman, Nestlé Waters North America’s Natural Resource Manager in Colorado. “We have a unique opportunity to protect a natural water resource, preserve beautiful open space, create local jobs and provide additional funds for education and other needs in the local community.”
For nearly two years, Nestlé Waters has been working together with local residents, conducting site tours, and reaching out to local agencies and businesses to tailor this project to best fit the needs and desires of Chaffee County citizens. Included as part of its permit application, Nestlé Waters voluntarily added a comprehensive community giving effort that will provide: a $500,000 endowment for local education initiatives; a permanent conservation easement to protect Nestlé’s 115 acres along the Arkansas River; in-stream fishing access at the Ruby Mountain and Bighorn Spring Sites; multi-million dollar local contracts to Chaffee County construction companies to construct the five-mile pipeline; programmatic annual giving to locally identified needs in the community; opportunities for environmentally-focused field work with local college and high school students; a comprehensive, wildlife-habitat restoration project of the old Ruby Mountain fish hatchery (which will incorporate a number of local agencies and interested groups); and a commitment to hire at least 50% of its truck drivers from the local area.
As part of the conditions of its 1041 and SLUP permits, Nestlé Waters will be required to provide a comprehensive land management plan of the spring sites, to include the hatchery restoration, surface water and groundwater monitoring and mitigation plans, protection of bighorn sheep habitat, streambank and wildlife friendly fencing, and other environmental, construction, and land use conditions. Long-term hydrologic monitoring, initiated in 2007 will continue throughout the life of the project.
“We appreciate the efforts made by the County Commissioners, Planning Commission, and Staff during this lengthy and complex permitting process,” said Lauerman. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with this community and working together to benefit the Arkansas River Valley for years to come.”
For more information about Nestlé Waters North America’s operations in Colorado, please visit: http://www.nestléwatersco.com
If only reality lived up to your corporate spin.
It’s shocking that Nestle would attempt to claim credit for the community involvement that didn’t appear until your water extraction project found itself in jeopardy and sinking fast.
Given that the full extent of your support for the community originally involved donating bottled water to the schools, it’s hard to see anything added to the list later as anything but a payoff.
And before you wrap yourself in the green cloak of environmental steward, I’d like to point out that the extent of your original “monitoring” program included a couple of 72 hour pumping tests.
It’s the same thing we see repeated in other parts of the country; in McCloud, Nestle didn’t conduct a single flow monitoring study downstream of your intended project until the lack of flow data became a a PR burden even your legions of PR staffers couldn’t overcome.
Now you – without even the hint of a smirk – point to that as proof of your green street cred.
In Mecosta County (MI), you repeatedly lost court cases concerning the amount of damage your pumping operation was causing, and repeatedly refused to do anything about your pumping levels until a judge threatened a complete injunction.
Then you turned around and – in your own corporate video created to counter the movie FLOW – repeatedly claimed the reduced pumping rates (forced on you by the courts) weren’t harming the watershed.
In simple terms, you did the wrong thing, fought to keep doing it, then claimed sainthood when you were forced to do it right.
Here, we see the same shuck and jive being performed on Chaffee’s residents.
You tout your “in-stream fishing access at the Ruby Mountain and Bighorn Spring Sites” without irony, apparently forgetting that in a last-minute memo to the commissioners you sought to have that access removed from your agreement.
The same effect is seen when you speak in self-congratulatory tones about your “long-term hydrologic monitoring,” much of which you sought to shed from the agreement in the same memo.
And I don’t even have time to go into the numerous (and oddly favorable to you) errors in your economic analysis of the benefits to the county – any one of which should have been enough to have your permit thrown out.
The same stories play out in rural communities all around the country; Nestle wanders into town, cuts backroom deals, rips small rural communities apart with divisive language and their always-at-the-ready legal bludgeon, and then issues saccharine press releases which not only defy reality, but release your Swiss-based multinational from any responsibility for the damage done.
I hope the citizens of Chaffee County are spared the legal and divisive community thunderbolts rained down on the residents of Fryeburg, McCloud, Mecosta, Wells and a long list of others.
I for one would like some additional information on the half million endowment.
Both the Salida School District and the Buena Vista School District have been told that Nestle Corporation will make a $500,000 contribution to K-12 public education in Chaffee County ($250,000 to each district). A group of Chaffee County citizens worked with Nestle to determine the best use for such a donation and the committee recommended that it be given to the public schools. As of yet, we have not received any payments. Once the schools receive money, it will be put into a foundation for short term and long term uses – which have not yet been determined.
The $500,000 is an endowment, not an outright gift. Typically the way endowments work, is that only the interest earned on the principle sum may be used. Most likely, a nonprofit foundation with a board will be set up. This board would decide who gets the money. This may amount to $25,000 a year depending how the investment pays off. The school districts will definitely NOT each be receiving $250,000. I hope this offers some clarification.
Uhh, I wonder which will come to pass?
When the endowment idea first appeared, it was accompanied by language suggesting it would be used to support non-profits that supported Nestle’s mission in Chaffee County – an astounding idea that would have left Nestle in control of the purse strings.
Hopefully, that hummer of an idea is gone, though hopefully the board for the nonprofit won’t be in Nestle’s pocket. We’ve seen similar situations in other communities, and the results are less than pretty.