Tonight at 5:30 PM the Columbia BOCC will vote on a water bottling operation by Niagara Bottling that has already been rejected by the Columbia County, Florida, Economic Advisory Board. The Board of County Commissioners makes the actual decision.
Especially if you live in Columbia County, please attend or send them email or call them. We don’t need more plastic bottles to clean up and we don’t need more drawdown of the aquifer and rivers. See the letter below by Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson for much more on what and why.
Besides, the demands Niagara makes sound like private prison company demands to have a certain number of prisoners or else penalties. For example:
Phase 1 water obligations of 650,000 gallons per day by Lake City to provide water is only relieved after Columbia County receives a non-appealable water use permit authorization sufficient to meet company’s water requirements at build out of 2,860,00 gallons per day of potable water and Columbia County has all water infrastructure completed and can independently serve the company.
The purpose of a county government is not to serve a private company from somewhere else.
See also background news stories by Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer:
- 2020-12-05: Columbia County & Lake City Throw Utility Vetting Rules Out the Window To Bring a Water Bottling Plant to the Plum Creek – Weyerhaeuser Mega Site
- 2020-12-29: Columbia County Econ Dev: Niagara Gets Thumbs Down – County Could Lose 150 Potential Jobs
The word “potential” is important: just because a company promises jobs doesn’t mean they would actually appear. And if water bottling companies and phosphate mines and agriculture keep draining the aquifer, what jobs will be left?
Letter by Merrilee Malwitz-Jipson to Columbia BOCC
November 6, 2021
Good Evening Gentlemen,
I am a resident of Columbia County. I identify with and volunteer for a citizen based organization named Our Santa Fe River which opposes bottled water businesses in our region in order to protect our freshwater springs, rivers and public water supplies found in wells and municipality service systems.
Tomorrow night, Columbia County (FL) Board of County Commission meeting will be discussing and possibly voting on the Belle Project (Niagara water bottling plant proposal).
Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 5:30 P.M.
School Board Administrative Complex
372 West Duval Street
Regular scheduled meeting Agenda: Continue reading