LETTER: Chance for contamination needs to be considered

Imagine that your well quits producing water. Imagine that you hear of contaminated groundwater in the valley, and you are told it is too late to do anything about it. Imagine that your neighbor who has water rights for a gpm well suddenly wants to extract in excess of 236 million gallons a year. This is only the amount of water that will be used for bottling, to be extracted, and shipped out of our valley.

This neighbor will use much more water in the manufacturing of plastic bottles to hold that water. Manufacturing has byproducts, and the byproducts are not necessarily the stuff (poisons) we want in our water. It has happened in other areas that permit the operation of water bottling plants, and it will happen here if Montana Artesian Water Co. and Lew Weaver get the approval.

Do a web search on the water company. Do a web search on “groundwater contamination caused by water bottling plants.” We must protest this intended robbery of our most precious natural resource. The “Groundwater Application for Beneficial Water Use Permit 76LJ 30102978” must be protested by this Friday, March 11. Protests to the DNRC must be on Form 611, available on the DNRC website. Cost to file a protest is $25.

Protest to other government agencies will be critical to stop this from being a problem for all of us in the valley. Please urge your government officials to protect our Flathead watershed. Now, before it is too late.

— Katherine Holley, Bigfork