The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – Nestlé Natural Resources Manager Bruce Lauerman will discuss the company’s exploration of Waitsburg as a potential new site for a water bottling facility at Wednesday’s city council meeting. In a statement released Tuesday, Nestle said the facility, which would support the Arrowhead Spring Water and Nestlé Pure Life brands, would provide an estimated 50 jobs at full build-out.

Nestlé estimates their projected water use at 150 million gallons annually, which they say “is a small fraction of Waitsburg’s permitted water supply.” They would become a water customer of the city, but would not obtain any of the city’s water rights.

“The company’s investment, including the establishment of a bottling facility, would be approximately $50 million,” the company said in its release.

City Clerk Randy Hinchliffe said the city produced approximately 258,516,833 gallons of water last year, but that does not represent the full capacity of the system. He said the city has several springs and three wells that could easily meet the needs of any high water user and that over 75,000,000 gallons were discharged into the river via the reservoir overflow last year.

Hinchliffe said the city’s water rights to the springs vary from 500 to 700 gallons per minute, depending on the source and when they were granted, but that they far exceed the city’s daily needs.

He said the initial contact with Nestlé was made through the Port of Walla Walla, though the Port is not directly involved in the potential project. He said discussions have been underway for approximately six months and that Lauerman has made several trips to the watershed springs to collect samples.

“It’s all very preliminary. At this point, we don’t know where a facility would be built or anything else. All we know is the water quality and where it is coming from,” Hinchliffe said.

Nestlé said detailed environmental and community due diligence must still be conducted on Coppei Springs, groundwater wells, and the sentiment of the community. Initial studies will come at no cost to Waitsburg.

The company says they are “committed to a transparent community engagement process, which includes providing opportunities for community members to offer input and express interests and concerns.”

The relevant discussion item listed on this week’s council agenda is “springline repairs and maintenance.” Hinchliffe said that Nestlé has offered to pay the city’s engineering firm to perform needed brush work in the watershed. He said Lauerman will also present the council with an overview of the potential project.

Nestlé plans to spend the next year working closely with the city to evaluate Waitsburg’s water resources and says Lauerman will oversee the project and share the scientific data and provide regular updates to the community of Waitsburg.

Nestlé said that, in addition to job creation, the potential project could benefit the community through ongoing scientific and environmental assessments, infrastructure improvements to the existing springs, receipt of new taxes, and direct social benefits from the company’s operations in the community, such as donations, sponsorship, and volunteerism.

The July 20 City Council meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the Lions Memorial Building located at the Waitsburg Fairgrounds. Nestlé’s full press release is available on the city website home page at cityofwaitsburg.com as “Nestle Waters Media Advisory July 2016.”