The Thursday night session in the Nestlé Waters North America 1041 permit hearing began with the opposition group responding to County Commissioners’ questions and ended with Nestlé representatives responding to comments opposing the permit.
The Nestlé Waters North America 1041 permit hearing continued Thursday morning and evening with a majority of speakers expressing opposition to a permit extension.
Chaffee County Commissioners will accept additional public comments about Nestle Waters North America’s 1041 permit extension at 9 am and 5 pm today.
The Nestlé Waters North America 1041 permit hearing opened Tuesday, Oct. 20, with a 6-hour session and testimony by county staff members, county consultants, various stakeholder agencies, Nestlé representatives, and members of Unbottle and Protect Chaffee County Water LLC.
“Operation of the Nestlé Waters North America wells has not caused progressive depletion of the groundwater resources of Chaffee County,” according to a recent report by Gary Thompson, principal of W. W. Wheeler and Associates.
A problem with the hydraulic gate at North Fork Reservoir could necessitate draining the mountain lake at the headwaters of the North Fork of the South Arkansas River.
As the Nestlé Waters North America 1041 permit hearing approaches, opponents of extending the permit have questioned the sustainability of the company’s Chaffee County operations, especially with regard to climate change.
Over the past 20-plus years I have written many articles on water rights and water allocation in Colorado.
As the Chaffee County Commissioners prepare to consider extending Nestlé Waters North America’s 1041 permit, Delia Malone, an ecologist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, takes issue with Nestlé’s dismissal of “a warming climate and its impact on water resources”
Chaffee County Commissioners decided at their recent meeting to schedule the Nestlé Waters North America 1041 permit hearing at 5 p.m. Oct. 20 and 9 a.m. Oct. 22 at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds in Poncha Springs.