Residents ready to fight Nestle
Attorney hired. Washington Twp. homeowners fear losing wells if bottler hikes watershed draw.
Thursday, August 31, 206
By DOUGLAS b. BRILL
The Express-Times
WASHINGTON TWP. | Glenn Kerrigan listened patiently as Nestle Waters North America representatives explained the township's role in its bottled water operation. Then, after nearly three hours, he couldn't take any more.
"I've sat here and listened to what Nestle can do for Nestle," Kerrigan said, shouting. "I'm asking you (township supervisors) as my representatives to defend my rights. It comes down to one thing: a dollar sign. How can Nestle make more money at my risk?"
He was met with a round of applause.
Representatives from Nestle, the Delaware River Basin Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection met with township supervisors Wednesday to discuss Nestle's request to draw an additional 4.8 million gallons from the Waltz Creek watershed each month.
Nestle currently draws 11.7 million gallons a month.
Those who live near Nestle's pumping station on Delabole Road rely on well water and are worried the request, if approved by the DRBC, will leave them high and dry.
Bruce Lauerman, a natural resource manager for Nestle, spent most of Wednesday's meeting assuring residents there is plenty of water to go around.
"It's really wet up there," he said of the watershed. "It (the draw request) fills a lot of bottles, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot of water."
Nestle, Lauerman says, draws from a surficial aquifer about
Extensive well monitoring proves Nestle's draws do not impact residential wells, he said.
Still, those who live in the Greenwalk neighborhood near the pumping station are not willing to take chances. They hired Easton attorney Charles W.
Elliott to help them oppose the additional draw request as the DRBC considers it.
"How do we know our water isn't from the surficial aquifer?" asked Cathy Ciccarelli of Delabole Road. Nestle trucks water drawn from the watershed to a plant in Breinigsville, where it is bottled and distributed under Nestle brand names, Deer Park and Ice Mountain.
Nestle would not risk exhausting its water supply, Lauerman said.
"At no point will we go on and on and on until the water is gone," Lauerman said. "It doesn't make any sense."