DEQ should be embarrassed...

Sandy Perry 8/19/2016 comments:

As Printed in the Daily InterLake on 8/19/2016:

If only Op-eds were subjected to fact checking. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver (owners of Montana Artesian Water) state they want to base the regulatory process in facts. Bravo!

Here are some facts taken directly from their DNRC permit and their 8/7/16 op-Ed in this paper. Page 24 of the DNRC permit states they want to produce 140,000 twenty ounce bottles per hour (1.2 billion a year) upon full build out.

Now in their op-ed, the Weavers claim that can be transported in 4 trucks a day. What would a truck capable of transporting 840,000 twenty ounce bottles (a fourth of the daily output) look like? DEQ should be embarrassed that they based their impact analysis on the building currently on site (stated on page 4 of that permit).

How about looking at what a factory capable of producing almost 200 million gallons/year of bottled water looks like? I did - it looks like a giant factory - (I googled water bottling plants that size). It is time for DEQ to admit the error of their ways and conduct a full Environmental Impact Study - now.

Or, the Weavers could amend their DNRC application to say they want to produce the amount of water that can be produced in the current building, and transported by 4 trucks a day.

Sandy Perry, Kalispell, MT

Letter to the Editor a follow letter after one above (not printed as of yet)

I wrote the attached letter in direct response to the Weavers op-ed on 8/7 and sent it 8/10. Your letters to the editor policy states that you publish all original letters less than 300 words unless they are libelous or in bad taste. I deliberately made sure to cite absolute facts in this letter, taken directly from the sources cited. I would never make libelous statements because I am very careful to state facts, which the Weavers claim their opponents do not do - while they persist in ignoring the facts in their applications.

My husband (Keith Perry) and I read this paper every day (through his iPad subscription). Sam Wilson has done an admirable job of covering the story. But, the editorial staff has not been fair minded in covering this issue. The Weavers have now taken out ads challenging the truthfulness of their opponents, when in fact it is their own account that ignores the facts.

They are now saying that a large factory would not be right for this neighborhood - which is great. Then they should amend their DNRC and DEQ requests. In fact, based on the recent public statements being made by the Weavers regarding their intent to operate at a fraction of the size stated in their permit, DNRC should throw out the current application and insist on a new application capped at 9.4 million gallons (4% of 235 million total - including rinse and geothermal- in the application) in line with what the Weavers now say they intend. Common ground could be achieved, I believe, if the Weavers asked for a bottling plant 4% the size of the one described in their permits.

Sincerely, Sandy Perry, Kalispell, MT