Ahead of Tuesday’s annual hearing by BlueTriton Brands (BlueTriton) before the Chaffee Board of County Commissioners,Protect Chaffee County Water (Unbottle-Protect.org) has scheduled an informal community conversation about the content of the annual report required by the BoCC. The session will be held from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Monday, April 11, at a new venue: The Velveteen, 115 G St. in Salida.
Nestleave and 350 Central Colorado joined forces to protest the renewal of a permit allowing Nestle to continue to pump local water for its Arrowhead bottled waters brand. Dan Smith photo
The permit for Nestle/BlueTriton requires that “multiple annual determinations that the permit is not in good standing are grounds for suspension or revocation of the permit.”
The Complete annual reportThis is a door-stop-size 545 page document. The Unbottle and Protect Chaffee County Water groups was an early opponent of the permit. It is now a registered 501(c),(3) and acts as a watchdog organization to improve oversight and transparency.
You can hear the presentation by Nestle/BlueTriton in two ways:
- The Buenavista Community Center, 715 East Main St. will host the hearing before BoCC on Tuesday, April 19. It is scheduled for 1:00 PM according to the BoCC agenda, but this time is not set as it is in many cases on large BoCC agendas.
- Or, Zoom in: https://zoom.us/j/109079543
Written comments can be submitted before noon on Friday, April 15 to the county commissioners and to the county administrative assistant: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]
A few highlights from this report:
- The trucks travel 6 miles per gallon. In 2021, they made 2,725 trips from Johnson Village to the Denver bottling facility. Only three of their truck drivers reside within 25 miles of Chaffee county. (page 454).
- BlueTriton still has not completed the agreed conservation easement, as promised in 2009, “concurrent with the construction of the project.” (page 40)
- They pumped an average of 62.465 gallons of water each day in 2021. The Arkansas River Valley was declared in extreme drought conditions last summer (page 197).
- BlueTriton donated 42,099 single-use plastic bottles of water in 2021 to organizations in Colorado as a “benefit” (page 33). Organizers against the permit have made note that single-use plastic bottles have no place in the county’s landfill, which has a limited lifespan.
