An Open Mind is a Wonderful Thing

I don’t live in Waitsburg, but I own a business here, and I definitely have a stake in its economic future. So it’s been puzzling to me to see the reaction of many Waitsburg residents to the news that Nestle Waters is considering purchasing water from the city and building a bottling plant here. This has the potential to provide new revenue for the city, create some good new jobs and increase the tax base.

The outrage started as soon as word got out that there might be rumors that Nestle might be investigating Waitsburg’s water resources. Many people were ready to drive them out with pitchforks before they even knew what the plan was.

In the past two issues of The Times, reporter Dena wood has described, in detail, what we know so far about Nestle’s interest in Waitsburg, and citizens’ reaction to it, so I won’t repeat much of that. But here are some thoughts on the objections I’ve been hearing:

We can’t afford to give away our water.

This statement is never backed up by any facts, other than the fact that it’s important that our future grandchildren have a river to swim in. Nestle has stated clearly they will only purchase excess water beyond what the city needs. It may turn out that this objection is true. But a little fact-finding can’t possibly cause any harm.

Nestle is a huge corporation that is responsible only to its shareholders.

Well, all private companies, including mine, are responsible to their owners. But they don’t become successful if they’re not also responsible to their customers, their employees and their suppliers. Green Giant Corporation ran a cannery in Waitsburg for many years and was a very important employer here. Waitsburg’s power supplier is a huge corporation controlled by billionaire Warren Buffet.

In Columbia County, large corporations have built hundreds of wind turbines which have provided huge benefits to people who live there. They have created several dozen permanent good-paying jobs, provided significant income to local farmers and local agencies, and they have increased the tax base so much that property tax rates are now significantly lower there than in Walla Walla County.

All this work was going in the watershed in secret.

I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know what legal responsibility the mayor and city manager had to inform city council members and citizens about what Nestle was doing. It may be that they were legally required to be more forthcoming than they were. That is something the council can determine.

I do know that businesses require confidentiality when they begin exploring places to set up new facilities. Rumors swirled for months in Columbia County about possible wind farms coming before any announcements were made. Officials were required to keep the exploration secret. That’s how it works.

Protesters have called for the heads of the mayor and city manager over the Nestle issue. And so Mayor Walt Gobel announced his resignation this week.

But what did that solve? In his interview with The Times, Gobel said, “I leave office with my head held high knowing my intentions have always been for the benefit of the community.”

I have no doubt that that’s true. People can certainly question the mayor’s judgement, but I see no reason to question his motives.

The thing is, all of the bad things many Waitsburg residents are concerned about might turn out to be true. Waitsburg might not have enough water to sell; Nestle might turn out to not be a good economic partner; and city officials may have acted improperly. But we don’t know any of those things for sure yet. And we have plenty of time to find them out before any decisions are made.

The citizens of Waitsburg need to have an adult conversation about the pros and cons of Nestle setting up shop here, and drop the emotional overreaction without knowing all the facts.