SALIDA — The Chaffee County commissioners spent hours today deliberating a proposal by Nestlé Waters to ship Arkansas River Valley spring water to Denver for bottling.
And once again, a final decision was delayed as an exhaustive list of possible conditions was detailed and scrutinized.
At today’s meeting — the second in as many months — planners presented at least 49 conditions that the county would impose on Nestlé if it approves the international corporation’s plan to sip 200 acre-feet of water a year — about 65 million gallons — from springs along the Arkansas River. The water would then be trucked to Denver and bottled under Nestlé’s Arrowhead label.
Nestlé, which submitted the plan a year ago, wanted the commissioners to postpone the hearing, which drew a standing-room only crowd eager to hear their leaders’ thoughts on the proposal. But the commissioners declined.
They heard dozens of conditions scripted by the county’s planning staff that addressed water-quality and supply issues, discussed how the company would augment water it draws from the springs and the limits the county might place on how much water could be pumped from the ground in a single day.
During several hours of discussion, it was evident that the commissioners believe the plan needs additional scrutiny and tweaking.
The commissioners discussed how the county might pay for monitoring of the pumping and talked about a mitigation fund that would help the county, should legal challenges arise.
The commissioners will take up the Nestle plan again Aug. 19.
