Opponents work on ballot-initiative petition

Opponents of the proposed water-bottling plant in Creston say they are on track to gather enough petition signatures to place a referendum on the next ballot, asking county voters to expand a special zoning district to include the land on which the facility is proposed.

The group behind the ballot initiative — Yes! for Flathead’s Farms and Water — needs to gather signatures from 15 percent of the registered voters in Flathead County by June 27 to qualify the petition for the ballot.

If the petition meets that threshold, county voters will decide whether to expand the existing Creston Zoning District to include 530 acres of adjacent, currently un-zoned land. The 1,150-acre, citizen-initiated Egan Slough Zoning District was created in 2002 and prohibits some industrial uses for the land while limiting parcel sizes to a minimum of 80 acres.

The ballot initiative follows a failed attempt by bottling-plant opponents to get the county commissioners to expand the district. That decision is currently the subject of a lawsuit against the county, but has yet to be resolved.

County election supervisor Monica Eisenzimer said the language contained in the group’s first ballot-initiative proposal failed to pass a legal review in February. A second attempt was certified by the county’s legal department and approved for signature-gathering March 29, kicking off a 90-day window for the group to collect a minimum of 10,067 signatures from registered voters in Flathead County.

Kristen Larson, a volunteer with the group, declined to say how many signatures they had collected so far, but said the group is “on target” to get it on the ballot.

“People are so supportive of this ballot initiative,” Larson said, adding that the petition drive has been conducted through a combination of door-to-door canvassing and signature-gathering events at businesses throughout the valley.

After petitions are submitted, the county election department verifies that each signature belongs to a registered voter and weeds out duplicate entries to determine the total.

WHILE THE proposed district expansion has been cast broadly as a way to preserve the rural character of the Egan Slough area — a swath of farmland south of Creston alongside the Flathead River — Larson acknowledged that the possibility of a large water-bottling plant in the farmers’ midst is the main driver.

“If we can stop it, I think that would be a positive for the whole Flathead Valley,” Larson said. “We don’t want any further industrial changes to that area; we want to keep it farmland.”

While most of the residents have been supportive of the proposed zoning change, Lew Weaver is not. As the owner of the Montana Artesian Water Co., the company behind the plant, and the land on which the facility would be located, he argues that fears surrounding his proposal are overblown.

“I find this disheartening, and it should be concerning for any business owner — whether agricultural, industrial or a local brewer — whoever wants to use water” for their business, he said. “I wonder how many people have signed a petition without really understanding what they’re signing up for.”

Weaver resisted last year’s proposal to the commissioners to re-zone the land, and also opposed a bill during this year’s legislative session that would have subjected his facility to a more stringent environmental review by the state. It also failed.

Concerns by nearby residents have centered around two main questions: How will the up to 231.5 million gallons of water per year withdrawn by the plant affect other water users in the area; and how will the increase in truck traffic associated with the industrial operation impact residents and motorists in the rural community?

Both sides of the issue have offered competing estimates of those impacts, and accuse their adversaries of misrepresenting the facts.

Larson stressed that signing the petition is not an endorsement of the plant’s opponents, but instead called it an opportunity to let the county’s voters weigh in on an issue that could impact an area extending well beyond the proposed zoning-district boundaries.

“I think that if you’re on the fence, that you should educate yourself, because we only have one chance to make this decision as a valley,” she said.

If the petition clears the signature hurdle before the deadline, voters will likely have plenty of time to make up their minds.

The petition states that the question would be placed before voters in the next county-wide regular or primary election after the June 27 deadline — which would probably land on the 2018 primary ballot.

Eisenzimer said she’s unsure whether her department would be required to hold a special election to decide the issue prior to the next county-wide election. She instead referred the question to Flathead County Deputy Attorney Tara Fugina, who did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.