LETTER: It's 'our' water

I have lived in the Flathead Valley for 11 years. Moved here with my family from a large city with its own water problems. I cannot believe the “powers that be” are even entertaining this bottling-plant proposal.

Again, this is a resource that belongs to all of us. How can one person be allowed to remove millions of gallons of water a day for his own profit? It’s a shared resource. All over the country there are water problems — not enough. Once this proposal is granted to remove water for profit the flood gates will be opened. There will be water bottling companies from all over the country wanting to take a bite out of OUR water supply. How can that be stopped once it’s in motion?

Letting this individual take water to sell for his own profit is wrong on many levels. Unless this proposal is put down, there will be millions of gallons of water taken daily from the water table that we all depend on and hundreds of trucks per day using already worn roads. A handful of unskilled workers to man the facility does not appear to benefit anyone except this one man and some long-haul truck drivers.

Someone, the governor or the county commissioners must stop this before it’s too late. Montana is the Treasure State. The water of Flathead Lake is OUR resource. It should be illegal to remove OUR treasure for one man’s profit.

Just wanted to let you know I’ve applied for a water-bottling business in Creston also. “Larry’s Water from Montana.” Two of my neighbors and a friend of mine are all applying for permits to remove and sell water from Flathead Lake. The gates are opening. How can it be stopped? The powers that be had better think of something.

—Larry Spinosa, Kalispell

(EDITOR’S NOTE: In a letter in today’s paper, the owners of the proposed water-bottling plant say they will only have four trucks per day maximum. In addition, the proposed permit would allow 231.5 million gallons to be withdrawn per year, not millions per day.)