05-27-2008, 01:40 AM
[center][cool][size 4][font "Garamond"][#008000]SACRAMENTO, Calif. [/#008000][/font][/size]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Nestle SA said Monday it is significantly scaling back plans in Northern California to build what would have been the country's largest water bottling plant.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The announcement by Nestle Waters North America comes after years of opposition by environmentalists and a group of residents in the rural town of McCloud.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]With soaring fuel and transportation costs, building a 1 million square foot facility at the base of Mount Shasta no longer makes economic sense, said David Palais, Nestle's Northern California natural resource manager.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The company also has built a plant in Denver and expanded other facilities in the West. Palais told The Associated Press that those expansions make a large plant in California less necessary.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Nestle signed a contract in 2003 with the McCloud Community Services District to pump up to 521 million gallons of water a year. In exchange, the Swiss food and drink company agreed to pay $250,000 to $350,000 a year to the town of McCloud, about 200 miles north of Sacramento.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Palais said the company now will seek permission to pump a fraction of that water and build a much smaller plant of about 350,000 square feet.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Nestle will ask for just 200 million gallons of water a year from the three natural springs that supply McCloud. He declined to say whether the company would ask to reduce its payments to the town.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The company said it also has agreed to two years of monitoring on Squaw Creek, a nearby trout stream. Fishermen, environmentalists and scientists had feared the stream might become warmer and lower if Nestle went ahead with its original pumping plans.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Critics of the plant welcomed Nestle's announcement but called on McCloud's five-member services district to negotiate a better contract.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]"While it certainly is a smaller plant than it would have been, it nonetheless uses a large amount of water. It's still a major operation," said Severn Williams, a spokesman for the Protect Our Waters Coalition.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The coalition represents California Trout, Trout Unlimited and the McCloud Watershed Council, a citizens group.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]It plans to lobby for a higher price for the water and a clause that limits Nestle to pumping only water from the springs around McCloud while prohibiting the company from touching the aquifer.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Williams also said the coalition wants a contract with a shorter timeframe than McCloud's current 100-year commitment to sell its water exclusively to Nestle.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Nestle SA said Monday it is significantly scaling back plans in Northern California to build what would have been the country's largest water bottling plant.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The announcement by Nestle Waters North America comes after years of opposition by environmentalists and a group of residents in the rural town of McCloud.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]With soaring fuel and transportation costs, building a 1 million square foot facility at the base of Mount Shasta no longer makes economic sense, said David Palais, Nestle's Northern California natural resource manager.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The company also has built a plant in Denver and expanded other facilities in the West. Palais told The Associated Press that those expansions make a large plant in California less necessary.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Nestle signed a contract in 2003 with the McCloud Community Services District to pump up to 521 million gallons of water a year. In exchange, the Swiss food and drink company agreed to pay $250,000 to $350,000 a year to the town of McCloud, about 200 miles north of Sacramento.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Palais said the company now will seek permission to pump a fraction of that water and build a much smaller plant of about 350,000 square feet.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Nestle will ask for just 200 million gallons of water a year from the three natural springs that supply McCloud. He declined to say whether the company would ask to reduce its payments to the town.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The company said it also has agreed to two years of monitoring on Squaw Creek, a nearby trout stream. Fishermen, environmentalists and scientists had feared the stream might become warmer and lower if Nestle went ahead with its original pumping plans.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Critics of the plant welcomed Nestle's announcement but called on McCloud's five-member services district to negotiate a better contract.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]"While it certainly is a smaller plant than it would have been, it nonetheless uses a large amount of water. It's still a major operation," said Severn Williams, a spokesman for the Protect Our Waters Coalition.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]The coalition represents California Trout, Trout Unlimited and the McCloud Watershed Council, a citizens group.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]It plans to lobby for a higher price for the water and a clause that limits Nestle to pumping only water from the springs around McCloud while prohibiting the company from touching the aquifer.[/size][/#008000][/font]
[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Williams also said the coalition wants a contract with a shorter timeframe than McCloud's current 100-year commitment to sell its water exclusively to Nestle.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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