Water bottler worries Eldred Township residents

By David Pierce
Pocono Record Writer

Scores of Eldred Township residents confronted township supervisors Wednesday with fears that a major water company’s potential water harvesting project will drain residents’ wells dry.

Deer Park Natural Spring Water — a division of Nestle Waters North America — has been investigating natural springs on Ricky Gower’s property for more than two years, but hasn’t yet filed a formal application with the township. The 28-acre site — where Gower operates a staging area for his trucking company — is located south of Kunkletown Road and east of Chestnut Ridge Drive, in a commercial zone behind the Kunkletown general store.

Residents’ fears were heightened in April, after Deer Park rented an information office at the Eldred Township Community Center to discuss the project with the public. Deer Park tentatively plans to hold a public meeting in July.

Initial testing of springs and a tributary of Buckwha Creek on the property has determined there is enough available water to move to a new phase of testing both quantity and the water’s purity, Deer Park hydrologist Eric Andreus said Friday.

“That’s why we went to test wells and started introducing ourselves to the community,” Andreus said. “Many test wells we walk away from because it’s of insufficient quality and quantity.”

Deer Park was originally drawn to the Gower property because there is a trout pond there.

“We heard about the springs on this property word of mouth,” Andreus said. “Typically, trout ponds are spring fed.”

200K gallons a day

At Wednesday’s township meeting, residents asked how a large daily withdrawal of water would impact other residents and businesses.

“The streams are low now, and what would it be like if they took the water away?” resident and business owner Kay Greenzweig Frable asked. “Kunkletown would be a ghost town.”

One man glanced at his iPad as he related Internet accounts of other Nestle water companies allegedly making massive unauthorized water withdrawals across the country, with negative consequences for nearby residents. He pointed to a California operation which continues to withdraw water despite the drought there.

Nestle is a “very, very small water user” in California, withdrawing only enough water to meet the typical irrigation needs of two golf courses, Andreus said. He called many online accounts of Nestle water operations untruthful.

If all goes as planned, Deer Park hopes to withdraw 200,000 gallons per day of water from the Gower property. That’s about 6 million gallons per month. Andreus said he wasn’t sure how much combined well and spring water might be used by Eldred’s 2,900 residents.

“That volume (sought by Deer Park) is a small portion of what’s available in the watershed,” Andreus said. “We will design the project so we do not adversely affect people’s wells.”

The 200,000 gallons per day sought by Deer Park is “a couple percent” of the 20 million gallons per day that flow through the Buckwa Creek watershed, he added. Rainfall will recharge the springs and streams from which water is withdrawn, Andreus said.

“The regulations do not allow us to dry up the springs,” Andreus said.

30 trucks per day

Deer Park currently taps water from seven locations in eastern Pennsylvania, including sites in Stroud Township’s Quiet Valley and Greenwaltz in Bangor. The water is transported by tanker trucks to Breinigsville, southwest of Allentown, for bottling.

The two Breinigsville facilities employ about 475 people and may expand, but no new employees are expected to be hired in Kunkletown.

A 10-foot by 10-foot well house would pump the water through underground pipes to a tanker loading station comprised of a 30-foot by 20-foot building and two water storage tanks.

About 30 trucks per day would travel from Kunkletown to Breinigsville, at full capacity. Deer Park has retained a traffic engineer to recommend the safest, least disruptive route, Andreus said, but it is anticipated the trucks would travel west toward Palmerton.

Deer Park would rent the Gower property through a 25-year lease. No new development would be allowed for the life of the Deer Park lease.

In addition to township approval, permits are required from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the four-state Delaware River Basin Commission. The Pennsyvlania Fish and Boat Commission also would play a role in the review process.

Eldred Supervisor Gretchen Gannon-Pettit told residents she expects her term, which ends in December, to expire before any supervisors’ vote on the water project takes place.

Regional zoning ordinance

Several residents questioned why the four-township regional zoning ordinance approved a year ago allows removal of groundwater for retail use from a commercial zone — including the Gower property — after an earlier draft only allowed removal from an industrial zone.

Supervisor May Anne Clausen said “I rather regret” the way the change was made, but that it was done by the regional planning board at the request of a planner.

“Procedurally, that needs a thorough review,” resident Vernon Barlieb said. “Steps were missed.”

Gower sought the change, Andreus said, but Deer Park played no role in influencing that decision.

“He asked the township to change the draft zoning ordinance,” Andreus said of Gower. “He brought it to our attention, and he realized it was a risk to the ability to complete the project, and he requested the change.”

Gower couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday.