We have spoken recently of the permit renewal submitted by Seven Springs Water to ship water to Nestle at their Ginnie Springs plant. This is the meeting where the Gilchrist County Commission approved the permits for the road enlargement and the water loading area as well as a wastewater loading area. This expansion indicates an expectation on the part of Nestle to also expand their production at the plant.
OSFR feels that the current production (or any production) is excessive and that there is no need for this extraction from this impaired and over-pumped river. That a company should profit from this free, natural resource is no reason to give a permit.
On July 15, 2019 the Gilchrist County commissioners approved Nestle Waters North America’s petition for facility improvements at their water bottling plant near Ginnie Springs, the summary of which is:
Site improvements for the reconstruction of the driveways into existing facility to separate auto and truck traffic; and including a spring water loading area and a process wastewater loading area. The project is referred to as Project Gator-Phase 3-Site Improvements.
Although in the past the maximum withdrawals allowed at this plant have not been utilized, rumor has it now that problems with Nestle’s Zephyr Hills and Madison Blue plants may be motivation for an up-kick in the Ginnie plant production.
This of course would be bad news for the already impaired Santa Fe River, and its reduced flow. Industry is slowing killing the river with ever-increasing nitrate from fertilizer and over-pumping by the bottling plant as well as irrigation.
OSFR President Mike Roth and OSFR board member Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson both spoke against the bottling plant. Following is part of what Merrillee said to the board members:
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson speaking on behalf of Our Santa Fe River and as a riparian property owner on the Santa Fe River. Addressing the Gilchrist County Agenda Item: a Variance Request for Nestle Water Bottling Plant, who was before the Board to get approval for expanding their facility. Location: CR 340 (Poe Springs Road in High Springs, FL).
My comments today are about our shared natural freshwater resources, which are now being recognized on an international corporate agendas for commodification.
I just found out this week that Google’s real estate company is buying land in north Florida and Bill Gates (Generation Farms) as you know, has purchased over 20,000 acres with 20 million gallons of water attached to those acres and Thomas Petterfy has purchased the largest contiguous land holdings in the state encompassing 500,000 acres sprawling over 5 counties, your county may be one of them.
Now Nestle is burying itself deep within our State’s freshwater supply, to the north in Madison County, to the south in Hillsborough County and now in the middle with this facility.
Our North Florida county regulations and rules are our sole line of defense, as we have seen over the past several decades that the state is giving away for free. This is our most valuable natural resource: our fresh clean water. More precious than whiskey, more precious than gold, more precious than any other vital, essential need for life, for humans and for our ecosystems.
One’s life cannot be sustained without clean, abundant, freshwater.
As the county with the highest concentration of freshwater springs anywhere in the entire world, I urge you to consider a Bill of Rights for Nature. As humans, we are merely one of the species in a habitat requiring fresh clean water. I urge you to create regulations and rules that protect all remaining drops of water that make our vital water ecosystems complete and whole.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Board Members of Our Sante Fe River:
As a born and raised (and still here) Floridian, most simply put: Protect and Save OUR water.
Thank you.
Good morning board members of Our Santa Fe River,
My name is Amanda Sapp and I am writing to you concerning the increase extraction of water from Ginnie Springs by the Nestle cooperation. Water is a vital unsustainable resource and this increased extraction of our states water is highly concerning. I understand that Nestle held a permit to extract the 1.2 – 1.7 million gallons a day, however never had extracted more than ~.2/mil/ day.
Now that their permit has expired in June 2019, they have submitted a new permit request stating that they will aim to extract the upward amounts they were previously granted, however one caveat to this new permit is that they applied specifically for a 5 year permit rather than 20 year. The reason this downgraded permit may have been filed is due to a 5-year permit not requiring an analysis of the projected financial and environmental impacts of the practices of the company’s actions.
I am writing to you today to inform you that I have started a petition (http://chng.it/8zF8GdKD) against this 5-year permit Nestle has requested. I am asking Gilchrist board of commissioners to halt the granting of such a permit until Nestle can provide data to support their requests. We have gained 287 signatures in 72 hours and the list continues to grow.
I am planning on contacting Gilchrist and the governor’s office about this matter, and I believe Nestle has requested a 5-year permit, which does not require projected risk analysis for their practices.
All permits which have potential to impact our state should require a projected data analysis to support minimal risks, and this is my call to action.
I welcome any feedback any of the board members may have on this matter. I would like to be informed about future meetings which I would like to attend.
Thank you for your time ,
Amanda Sapp, MPH
Biostatistics
Disclaimer: Although I am employed by the University of Florida, my thoughts and actions on this matter are independent and do not in any way speak for the positions of UF. I support my petition as a local citizen of the north Florida area.