LETTER: Many issues to be studied in bottling plant
Regarding the permit application by property owner Lew Weaver for a bottling plant, below are issues that clearly need to be legally resolved before being “rubber stamped” with an OK. If not, Montana taxpayers will be left holding the bag for the costs associated with this private business owner’s operation. Not to mention the very real potential for “water wars” between neighbors, farmers, ranchers.
• No definitive environmental reports done/filed establishing clear and convincing evidence of the plant’s impact.
• Define the cost to taxpayers for scheduled verification of the plant’s compliance with permit parameters and environmental regulations.
• Consideration of the dangerous legal precedent established by granting this permit on future applications.
• Consider legal cost of getting an LLC to comply with clean-up once a problems is discovered — and there will be problems.
• Cost to local government from legal suits filed by property owners surrounding and downstream of the plant because of “loss of quality of life and loss of property values.”
• Increased road maintenance cost created by impact of semi-trucks on roads locally and statewide.
• Associated cost of reports, plans, implementation on solutions to replenish depleted groundwater aquifers — depletion which is already underway because of drought conditions in the Western states and population increases locally.
• Possible increased cost to firefighting efforts based on less available water in streams and lakes downstream of the plant.
• Social cost of depleted aquifers on our streams, rivers and lakes and the ramifications on wildlife and wild vegetation, thus impacting the way of life for many Montanans.
• Financial loss of tourism and recreational dollars in connection with the repercussions of decreased aquifers and the impact on rivers, streams and lakes.
Local government must not ignore the overwhelming problems associated with this permit application.
—Barbara Widstrand, Rollins