LETTER: Protect valuable water resources

The Flathead Valley is encircled by mountain ranges. As residents, we are both acutely aware of these mountains and what they mean: recreation, jobs, beauty; but they can also be easy to ignore as they stand there, apparently unchanging, as we go about our daily lives.

But the mountains are the water towers for our communities, holding the snow melt and rain runoff that recharges our aquifers with each storm.

This valley’s population has increased by more than 25 percent in the last decade to about 90,000 people who, with the exception of Whitefish, rely on this groundwater in our deep aquifer. As we experienced last year, a single year of drought can affect us — water levels in Flathead Lake lowered by a foot in early July, affecting farmers, business owners and residents dependent on the flow of water.

As the western states continue suffering through drought, I can’t help but be concerned about the consequences of allowing a water bottling plant that could dramatically draw down the aquifer we all depend on under the theory that it should recharge. Other communities with bottling plants have experienced only detrimental results on their water supplies, including needing backup wells for municipal water; all while the bottling plants continue to pump.

Communities are created and sustained through water. It supports not only us, but also the animals and plants that call this ecosystem home. If we don’t protect our resources now, the effects will be difficult to undo and will be felt for generations to come.

—Amy Dempster, Columbia Falls