Community & Labour Action

US: Gilchrist County recommends approval of bottled water plant

The High Springs Herald. By Rachael Anne Ryals -

GILCHRIST COUNTY -- The Gilchrist County planning staff will recommend approval for a proposed water bottling plant that could pump up to 660,000 gallons of water a day from a spring near Rum Island.

The Gilchrist County Planning and Zoning Board will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, March 10 to vote on the water bottling facility.

The planning staff recommendation report states that the Gilchrist Planning Planning Commission should approve the needed special permit for the water bottling facility because 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 states.

The report states 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 states. "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," the report states.

Those opposing the plant, including the local, 2,000-strong Sierra Club and the 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.

The planning staff is recommending some conditions for approval, including:

* No toxic, hazardous or industrial waste will be produced and or disposed of on-site.

* The bulk transfer of non-bottled spring water to locations outside of Gilchrist County shall be prohibited.

* A permit for the purpose of spring water bottling issued by the Suwannee River Water Management District must be maintained. Any expiration, cancellation or revocation of such permit will automatically void this Special Use Permit unless the applicant secures another valid permit within 12 months from the date of expiration, cancellation or revocation of the previous valid permit.

* A traffic impact study is required for the proposed development.