Community & Labour Action

US: Gilchrist County Planning Commission recommends denial of water plant

The High Springs Herald. By Rachael Anne Ryals -

GILCHRIST COUNTY -- The Gilchrist County Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday to recommend denial of a proposed water bottling plant.

The reasons cited by the Planning Commission for the recommendation of denial were a lack of compatibility with the area, a lack of public infrastructure and safety reasons such as truck traffic.

The recommendation for denial came after more than five hours of public input on Monday night by an estimated 200 residents who showed up to speak against the plant. The public meeting ended close to midnight.

The Gilchrist County Commission will have the final say on whether the water bottling plant is approved. That Commission can still approve the plant despite the Planning Commission's recommendation for denial.

For more details, see Thursday's High Springs Herald.

The Gilchrist planning staff had recommended approval to the Planning Commission for the water bottling plant that could pump up to 660,000 gallons of water a day from a spring system called Blue Springs near Rum Island.

Taylor Brown, planning director for Gilchrist County presented the planning staff's report. That report said that the plant will be an economic boost to the area while minimally affecting the environment and neighboring properties.

"The positive impacts of the proposal are easy to see in that the development will increase local tax revenues both directly through increased property and business taxes, as well as indirectly through the payment of wages to local workers," the report stated.

The report stated that the water bottling industry is considered a “clean" industry and that the facility will not harm the river.

"By necessity, the water bottling plants must share this same goal as the viability and marketability of their products depend upon high quality water," the report stated. "The interests of high water quality and good water stewardship is very much common ground for the applicant and the Gilchrist County community as a whole."

The one potential negative from the plant is the increase in noise and truck traffic, according to the report.

To determine if the noise and traffic would be bothersome, the planning staff compared it to the existing Coca Cola water bottling plant, located just a half mile from the proposed Blue Springs plant.

"Staff found the level of noise created to be easily tolerable and would describe the noise as a constant low-level humming," Brown said.

But many residents who speak against the plant said that the truck traffic was unsafe and a burden.

Those opposed the plant, including the local 2,000-strong Sierra Club and local environmental group "Our Santa Fe River," have said that shipping water away from the Santa Fe River will affect the health of the river.

But the staff report defers those questions to the Suwannee River Water Management District, the entity that issues water use permits.

The owners of Blue Springs have had the water use permit since Oct. 14, 2003, but just a few months ago, in August, the district voted to start the process to revoke the permit because it had not been used for two years.

The permit is still valid but is in now in litigation, said Jon Dinges, director of Water Resource Management with the Suwannee River Water Management District.

The permit is not being revoked due to lack of water, but for lack of use in the appropriate time frame.