The comments and opinions expressed herein reflect those of most residents and/or business owners who will be affected ultimately by the operation of a water bottling plant located on Egan Slough along the Flathead River. The information in the news presents this bottling plant as “proposed,” but in fact the building is already in place, the well is already drilled and the bottling plant “turnkey” ready, simply waiting for the final permitting process by the DNRC.

This permit will allow the owners of the Artesian Water Company to draw up to 231.5 million gallons of water, a volume that would allow the company to bottle, ship and sell the equivalent of 2 billion 12-ounce bottles of water per year. While free enterprise and entrepreneurship are an American staple, doing so at a peril to other landowners who obtain their water from the same aquifer must be considered.

First let’s look at the aquifer in question. Even though there are numerous aquifers under the land mass of the Flathead Valley, the aquifer in question is referred to as the “Pothole Lakes Area,” located east of the Flathead River and encompassing the general area between Echo Lake and Lake Blaine.

The primary shallow aquifers are semi-confined and cannot be correlated across large distances and are usually between 50 and 100 feet below the land surface, with median reported static water level 20 feet below the ground surface. Several large springs located along the edge of the Pothole Lakes area are important sources of groundwater discharge but are subject to seasonal and long-term climate cycles.

With this in mind, and considering the ongoing debate about climate change, does the DNRC think that the other landowners obtaining their water needs for domestic or agricultural requirements will not be “adversely affected” by this enormous consumption of our water resource for one’s personal profit?

Title 85 (water use) of the Montana Code Annotated 2015, section 85-2-308-3, reads, “A person has standing to file an objection under this section if the property, water rights, or interests of the objector would be adversely affected by the proposed appropriation.” Having sent in our objection, and having paid the $25 fee allowing us to object to permit application #76LJ30102978 (by Montana Artesian Water Co.), we received a reply stating that we must provide FACTS showing that the proposed use will adversely affect our water rights.

We can only assume that each of the other objectors, who also paid $25 for their right to object, received the same request for facts. As consumers of these waters from the Pothole Lakes Area aquifer, we demand that the DNRC themselves provide updated, factual information by certified hydrological investigation outlining and addressing the growth potential and future water demands on the subject aquifer, the seasonal variations in water supply (historical and projected) to the aquifer due to drought or prolonged periods of abnormally low rainfall and predicted climate change.

Further, the DNRC should be required to forward that information to the county commissioners so as to access the maintenance imposed on county roads by the number of trucks necessary to transport 2 billion bottles of water from the facility.

Last but not least, has the DNRC considered the constant threat of wildfire hazards in that district? Those of us who live on the (often windy) grassy knolls or wooded areas within the Pothole Lakes Area must always have a green belt around our homes as a first line of defense from such disasters. In order to maintain this line, we need good water pressure.

Last summer, for the first time ever, we and others in our area noted a serious decline in pressure. Whether this was around the time of Mr. Weaver’s testing the output of his new deep well is an unknown, but we feel that the local fire district managers should be part of the conversation.

The possibility of lower land and tax values in the Pothole Lakes Area due to lack of water pressure, and/or the necessity for each land owner to drill a deeper well or lower their pumps is an issue the county commissioners need to address.

With due respect to Mr. Weaver’s entrepreneurial spirit, we believe that catering to the gullets of the boutique water drinkers is an exploitation of Montana’s natural resources at its worst and in the future imposes an endangerment to the properties and lives of the neighboring community.

Bill and Nancy McGunagle are residents of Kalispell.