Redding Record-Searchlight-
May 13, 2008

Nestle plans scaled back
by Kimberly Ross

Nestle's plans to build what would have been the country's largest water bottling plant in McCloud have been scaled back by 60 percent, both in physical size and water used.

The announcement Monday by Nestle Waters North America came after years of opposition by environmentalists and a group of residents in the small Siskiyou County town.

"I'd be very pleased if that were true," said Janet Connaughton of McCloud, a board member of the McCloud Watershed Council, one of several groups that have challenged Nestle's plans.

But she was skeptical about the news. "It could mean anything. And knowing Nestle, it's probably meant to confuse and spin," she said. David Palais, Nestle's Northern California natural resource manager, said building a 1 million square-foot facility at the base of Mt. Shasta no longer makes economic sense. Palais cited soaring fuel and transportation costs rather than community opposition.

"It's primarily the economics -- with fuel prices the way they've gone, and that we've opened another plant in Denver," he said.

The company also has increased water bottling capacity at existing western Nestle plants, he said.

Instead of employing 240 people at build-out and using up to 1,600 acre-feet of water a year, the McCloud plant will shrink to 350,000 square feet, provide jobs for 100 and use 600 acre-feet a year, he said.

Construction of a McCloud plant, planned for about five years, will likely be further delayed, too, Palais said.

It will take at least two years to study and forecast stream flow and trout habitat impacts to a creek in the area, as environmental groups like California Trout have rallied for, Palais said. After that, an environmental impact report (EIR) must be conducted again, based on the use of 600 acre-feet a year instead of 1,600, Palais said.

"I fully expect them to say that will be a less-than-significant impact, but we'll wait to see," he said. "Until you get all the information from the studies, there's no real point to putting together a draft EIR."

Community members also disliked Nestle's 50-year water-customer contract with the McCloud Community Services District, which could then be renewed for another 50 years. He expects a new contract will have to be written up with the district.

"The contract reflected a previous project that we're no longer considering," he said.

The services district's interim general manager, Beth Steele, said late Monday afternoon that she'd learned about Nestle's change of plans only 45 minutes earlier "in the candy store when I went to get a mocha. It's a small town."

She had not yet received word from Nestle representatives, but expected to hear Palais make an announcement at the district's meeting later that night.

"I know he'll be here, and we'll discuss it in person," she said. "I know that everybody wants answers right now, and right now we don't have answers."