In mid-October, Nestle Waters North America resource manager Tom Brennan stated officially that the corporation "has decided to suspend further water investigation on state-owned land in Montague." Opponents of the conglomerate—which was investigating the Montague Plains aquifer's potential as a site for a spring water bottling factory—gave a sigh of relief.
However, according to water activist and Clean Water Action Campaign Director Tina Clarke, Nestle Waters' preliminary interest and negotiations were themselves "a huge wakeup call" that raised issues of local control over water supplies and potential development threats to conservation land.
"Signing a water extraction contract with a major multinational corporation has had disastrous consequences in some communities," said Clarke. "The Montague Aquifer is connected to water supplies throughout the Valley, and we are concerned about harmful impacts of large-scale water withdrawal on our communities, local businesses and farmers."
Nestle obtained permission to walk the Montague Plains, a 1,500 acre sandy plain delta, in July in order to test the Montague Plains aquifer's water quality and quantity. Its presence galvanized a strong reaction by citizens and activists almost immediately. About 50 people attended a July Division of Fish and Wildlife Meeting to oppose Nestle Waters or express misgivings about the project. The company's interest in the Montague Plains Aquifer was especially controversial and complicated because the Plains themselves are protected by Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution. The legislation states that Article 97 lands shall not be sold or used for any purpose that might "destroy or threaten a unique or significant resource."
Nestle Waters director of public affairs Brian Flaherty said that "it became fairly clear early on that Article 97 presented a different situation" than the company had dealt with in other states. He described Nestle Waters' decision not to pursue the Montague Plains Aquifer as motivated purely by "business" concerns.
Flaherty told the Franklin County Recorder that citizen pressure was not the cause of Nestle's retreat. He mentioned that Nestle investigates dozens of potential bottling sites at a given time, and said that none of the preliminary tests done over the past few months indicated that the aquifer was necessarily an ideal bottling site. However, the company is especially eager to acquire spring water bottling sites (spring water is a more lucrative commodity than purified municipal water, which comprises 25 to 40 percent of bottled water sales).
The Montague Plains aquifer supplies water to the nearby Bitzer Fish Hatchery as well as Nourse Farms. It also provides water to residents of Turners Falls and Montague Center. It is categorized as a glacial delta outwash plain formation and a medium-yield aquifer, and water flows into its subsidiary springs at a rate of 25 to 1,000 gallons per minute. The Plains aquifer is mapped at 3,740 acres, but its exact boundaries are nebulous: a press release advertising two upcoming walking tours of the region claims that the aquifer "lies under and beyond the Plains, in an area which is not well mapped, and which extends beyond the Plains, perhaps connecting with other aquifers down the Connecticut River Valley."
Tina Clarke says that the poorly defined boundaries of the aquifer may prove problematic in the future. Brennan's announcement of Nestle Waters' lack of further interest in "state-owned land" is equivocal, she said, expressing concern that the company might try to acquire a privately owned parcel of land close enough to allow it to gain access to Montague Plains water without tangling with Article 97 while still obtaining the Food and Drug Administration designation of "spring water" for its product.
She also wonders if other companies might come calling at some future date, seeking abundant sources of fresh water.
Kirt Mayland, director of the Eastern Water Project and Trout Unlimited, expressed more confidence in existing Massachusetts laws regarding water and conservation, as well as the energy and strength of citizen advocacy and environmental rights organizations in the area.
"Nestle has probably realized building a plant in Western Mass. would be challenging," Mayland said. Water shortages in eastern Massachusetts have "educated our state," he added, making Massachusetts "ground zero for water conservation." He pointed out that it is difficult to obtain a Water Management Act approval permit, which requires that the extraction of 100,000 gallons of water per day or more be sanctioned and overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Flaherty has stated, and Brennan has confirmed, that Nestle Waters is "not pursuing any particular sites in Montague right now." However, in spite of the company's ostensible retreat, both Mayland and Clarke agreed on the need for vigilance about water supply protection and more specific state laws about bottling procedures and other means of large-scale water extraction.
The Montague Alliance to Protect Our Aquifer continues to meet in an attempt to strengthen law and policy regarding the aquifer, including Article 97, which Clarke claims does not offer adequate protections to conservation lands and the natural resources they harbor. And in a Division of Fish and Wildlife Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 23, Clarke and her colleagues reminded Fish and Wildlife members of Clean Water Action's policy to oppose any development that might impact adjacent conservation land.
