Courtesy of The Monticello News and Jefferson County Journal – ECB Publishing
This photo, courtesy of the SRWMD, shows the contractor for Nestlé Waters drilling wells on the Boland Land LLC property near the Wacissa River in late June.
The exploratory testing of the waters of the Wacissa River by Nestlé Waters North America — the country’s largest bottled water company — has raised concerns in the surrounding community, prompting a company spokesman to speak with the Journal about the project.
Jim McClellan, owner/consultant of Southern Solutions Inc., a public relations firm, spoke with the Journal from his office in Pensacola on Monday, Oct. 11. McClellan said Nestlé Waters was in the very early stages of testing and gathering data to determine the viability of the Wacissa River as a source for the company’s bottled drinking waters.
McClellan offered a little history on the company’s Madison County facility, located at Blue Springs near Lee and dating from 2004. He said the Lee plant, which presently employs 145 people, has permits to daily pump 1.4 million gallons from the spring, plus an additional 200,000 gallons of groundwater.
Additionally, the company has alternative, or satellite, springs at Cypress Spring in Washington County, and White Springs in Liberty County.
McClellan said Blue Springs provided sufficient water to operate the Lee plant. But times when the plant’s pipes or pumps required routine maintenance or other work, the company trucked water from the satellite springs to keep the facility operating and production of its bottled waters uninterrupted.
“It helps so that we don’t have to cut back on hours and it keeps the plant production viable,” McClellan said.
He said the plant also drew from its satellite springs for the water it bottled for private labels, such as large grocery store chains.
“We don’t like to use the same sources we use for the company brands,” McClellan said.
Nestlé Waters North America produces seven regional spring water brands, including the Zephyrhills and Deer Park brands.
The reason the company was exploring the Wacissa River as a possible satellite spring had to do with its proximity to the Lee plant, McClellan said, noting that Cypress Spring was 160 miles away from the facility and White Springs 100 miles away. In order for the Wacissa River water to be harvested, however, it had to meet certain quality parameters, which explained the testing, he said. “We are very, very early in the process,” McClellan emphasized. “This is a long and involved process. We’re at the point where we’ve drilled some test wells to gather data.”
Actually, the process started about a year ago, when the company first began identifying potential sites that would serve its needs, he said. And it would likely be another year before a decision could be reached, he said, adding that the decision would depend on a host of variables, including the outcome of the testing and data gathering and the willingness of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) to issue a permit.
“We’re still a year off from a decision if everything works out,” McClellan said. “We don’t even know if the SRWMD will approve any withdrawals.”
McClellan said the negotiations with the James Boland family so far had involved only the testing phase, in terms of the company being allowed to drill on the land and add gravel to the road to allow for the passage of heavy equipment. He said the company typically looked for springs located on lands owned by large property owners.
“We have to know that there won’t be harmful activities going on in the vicinity of our spring areas, such as pesticide use and other practices that aren’t compatible with drinking water,” McClellan said. “We need enough land to protect our sources.”
What about representations made to area residents by Nestlé Waters representatives at a recent meeting that the local operation could draw from 455,000 gallons to as much as 1.5 million gallons a day from the river and involve between 60 and 80 trucks to transport the water to the Lee plant?
McClellan didn’t deny the statements, but he said the representations had to be understood as a worst-case scenario, given the many unknowns that existed at present. He said the company had presented the cited numbers because the question had been asked; but it was really too early in the process to know what the actual numbers might be, or if the project would ultimately even prove worth doing or feasible, he said.
Moreover, the concerned residents had to understand that the company had a strong economic disincentive to use the satellite springs, he said.
“It’s cheaper to draw water directly to the plant than it is to have to truck it in, which increases the costs,” McClellan said.
Which raised another question: Did Nestlé Waters have any intention of eventually constructing a plant in Jefferson County?
Absolutely not, McClellan said, pointing out that the location here was a mere 60 miles from the Lee facility — too near for Nestlé Waters to make another $100+ million investment. It had to be understood that, small as the Wacissa site was expected to be — taking up five acres (including a load station and pump house with a shelter for the drivers, etc.) — it represented a significant investment for Nestlé, he said.
“We’re talking in the millions,” McClellan said. “That ‘s why we do such long-term testing.”
Why so costly?
Because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set extremely high standards for materials and equipment used in the production of food and beverages, McClellan said. Meaning, for example, that all the pipes had to be stainless steel, he said.
McClellan avowed that Nestlé Waters was not seeking to draw more water than what it is permitted to draw at present. What the company was seeking, he said, was greater flexibility, so as to be able to draw water from various sources if necessary and so ensured the continuous operation of the Lee plant. And no, there was no plan to close the Lee facility; if anything, the search for alternative springs was to ensure for its continued and continuous operation, he said.
McClellan said it was understandable that Wacissa area residents were concerned about Nestlé Waters’ intention and wanted answers. He said the company was hopeful it could engage in a meaningful dialogue with the residents and allay their concerns. In fact, he and other Nestlé Waters representatives had already met with some of the residents and answered some of their questions, he said.
“Hopefully, we can assure the residents that we’re not going to cause harm to the river or the ecosystem,” McClellan said. “As a corporation, we have a dollars and cents interest in protecting our water sources. Water is our business.”
Moreover, he noted, regulatory agencies such as the SRWMD and the Florida Department of Environmental Projections (FDEP) would have a say in the matter. It might even be that the Wacissa River ultimately proved unusable for Nestlé Waters’ purpose, he said.
“We haven’t even applied for a permit yet,” McClellan said, reiterating that it was still early in the process.
He challenged anyone who doubted the company representations to review its six-year track record in Madison County.
“Talk to the neighbors,” McClellan said. “For six years, we’ve been good corporate neighbors. We’re a doggone good company to have in a community.”
He challenged others who had questions about the river’s level, the withdrawals’ possible effects on nearby shallow wells, or the integrity and water quality of Blue Springs, to check with the SRWMD or with 20-year readings of the river’s levels at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/measurements/?site_no=02326526.
As for the Malloy Landing Road closing and the associated controversy, McClellan said Nestlé Waters had nothing to do with the issue.
“It didn’t have anything to do with us,” McClellan said. “It doesn’t matter to us if the road is public or private. It won’t affect our decision at all.”
Regardless, McClellan conceded that the timing of the road closing couldn’t have been worst, in terms of presenting the perception of what he could only describe “as a hell of a coincidence”.
Sheri Green is one of a group of Wacissa area residents concerned about Nestlé Waters’ presence in their community and one of a few who met with McClellan and other company representatives recently. However reluctantly, Green was speaking here as a nominal spokesperson for the concerned residents group, which calls itself Protect Our Wacissa River Spring (POWRS).
Had the meeting with the Nestlé people allayed the group’s concerns?
“Our concerns haven’t been satisfied,” Green said on Monday, Oct. 11. “The concerns are still there, maybe even more so.”
She listed among the abiding concerns the lack of creation of any local jobs; the potential for between 60 and 80 trucks to be put on the county’s roads; the impact to the river’s water level and that of nearby residential water wells; and the viability of the springs and river species such as the Suwannee bass.
The Malloy Landing Road closing also continued to be a sore point with many of the residents, and it would be extremely difficult to ever convince these individuals that a connection didn’t exist between Nestlé Waters’ coming and the road closing, she said.
Green said of particular concern to her was that when she had asked the Nestlé Waters’ people to provide their assurances in writing, the latter had declined to do so.
“If they won’t it put it into writing, once they get their consumptive use permit, they can do whatever they want,” Green said.
A spokesperson for the SRWMD confirmed on Wednesday, Oct. 13, that the agency was aware of the drilling taking place on the Boland property and also that Nestlé Waters had not yet applied for a water-use permit.
Cindy Johnson, SRWMD communications coordinator, told the Journal that the permit application would depend on the outcome of the water quality and quantity testing that Nestlé Waters was conducting on the site.
“If a water-use permit application is received, it will be noticed on our website and then the review phase will start,” Johnson said. “The most recent water-use permit application for bottled water use is about 17 months in review since application. These types of reviews do take some time.”
Johnson shared a June 30 agency memo summarizing the results of a site inspection of the drilling activities on the Wacissa River conducted by SRWMD personnel on June 29, following a citizen complaint filed on June 24.
Per the memo, the SRWMD personnel observed no violations of district rules during the site visit, and further found that the drilling activities were being conducted properly and in accordance with two district-issued permits that allow Nestlé Waters to install “up to eight monitoring wells per permit”.
Per the memo, Nestlé Waters’ consultant geologist on the job site indicated that the “borings installed to date (June 29) had not yet located a significant limestone water bearing unit”.
The memo relates that, per the geologist, “none of the borings installed had exceeded 200 feet in total depth and that all groundwater samples collected so far had the strong odor of sulfur.”
“We should have the completion reports by Oct. 22 on the wells,” Johnson said in conclusion. “I do not have any other recent information available.”
If you can, please go to Facebook and look for Wacissa River, where you will find a fledging citizen group getting ready to go the distance against Nestle. OSFR is prepping them for their needs. If any of you can offer suggestions and relay your story to them, please do so now.
OSFR fought against water bottlers on many local fronts, but we have never had to go up against Nestle, Pepsi or Coke directly.
This one is a obvious front assault with Nestle going after yet another spring fed area of North Central Florida, near the Georgia border and above Madison Blue Springs. The plan is for them to bulk transfer Wacissa Spring water to their multi-million dollar facility at Madison Blue Springs.
They have not applied for any permits, other than for test wells, from our government regulatory agency….the Suwannee River Water Management District.
Thank you for your consideration,
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson
President, Our Santa Fe River, Inc.
Great piece, I appreciate the uncovering and insightful story, but I just wanted to let you know that the State of Florida’s agency for the environment is into ‘Protecting’ it, not ‘Projecting’ it.
Thanks!
Interesting. As a kid I learned how to boat on the Wacissa and spent many a nights on it’s banks cooking my day’s catch. I now live on the Arkansas near Salida. Although completely different in grade and environs, the Wacissa is every bit as beautiful as any section of the Arkansas, and provides cover for countless animals. I hope they do all they can to protect it.
Either way, the bottom line is that the bottled water industry is absolutely TERRIBLE for the planet’s health, and this fact has been documented hundreds of times over. The public must re-learn how to hydrate, and either utilize reusable water containers or fill up a glass from the faucet.
I see many parallels with our Chaffee County situation in the tone of Nestle’s attempts to calm local residents. I have yet to get behind one of the planned 60-80 truckloads of Nestle Water here on Hwy 285 but understand they are already operating them.
Despite all the rhetoric we went through here, the bottom line for any of us is that trucking water over distances to put in plastic bottles is just plain wrong on it’s face. The disposal problem alone (of millions of containers) should be enough to stop this project.
I hope that responsible “adults” with common sense in Florida take on Nestle and stop this before it goes any further. Nestle’s paternalistic patronizing is just too much – they do not know nor care what’s best for the environment or local citizens.
I am Ern (Ernest) Jones, a Tallahassee resident who has been paddling kayaks on the Wacissa River for just about a dozen years. My first introduction was a moonlight night paddle sponsored by the outdoor shop, Wilderness Way. The next week I paddled by myself and could not even have imagined such pristine wilderness. If ever there was a River of Eden the Wacissa is it. It runs through a flat swamp at the headwaters for about 4 miles, another flat swamp for about 2 miles at Goose Pasture and a final flat area for several hundred yards at the entrance to the slave canal. Other than that the rest of the river is about two kayaks wide.
It looks like a major waterway in the flats but the water moves slowly until it becomes narrow where the water flow is faster. POINT: TAKEN ALL TOGETHER THE WATER FLOW IS REALLY NOT WHAT IT FIRST LOOKS LIKE FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE MAGNIFICENT WIDE SHALLOW AREAS.
In my years on the river my water gauge has been Little River at the headwaters. When you can paddle the three quarter of a mile clear up to Allen Springs you can paddle the slave canal. When you can only paddle about half of Little River before running aground in the middle of the channel, You can’t paddle the slave canal or the entrances into the other major springs. Then only the Creek into Big Blue Spring has enough water to paddle.
Little River has been too dry to paddle at least 4 to 5 times in these 12 years. THIS IS WHERE NESTLE WANTS TO PUMP WATER!! THEY WANT TO PUMP WATER FROM UNDER LITTLE RIVER WHICH IS MOSTLY DRY FOR ABOUT A THIRD OF ITS TIMELINE. THINK ABOUT THAT — LITTLE RIVER, WITH NO FLOW AT ALL INTO THE MAINSTREAM WILL BE REDUCED FROM ABOUT ONE THIRD OF A MILE DOWN TO SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS AND THEN THEY WILL BE REMOVING WATER DIRECTLY FROM UNDER THE MAINSTREAM OF THE WACISSA. Now the main river is going to shrink drastically
choking off the sustenance to the Moorhen population which feeds practically everything on the river.
THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT.
Thanks, Ern Jones. — you can count on me for moral and financial support in this cause to save our national treasure river.