Residents Speak Out on Nestle´

WAITSBURG – It was a full house at Waitsburg Town Hall on Aug. 2, as citizens of Waitsburg and surrounding areas made their voices heard at a special city council meeting for the purpose of discussing the possibility of Nestle' Waters North America building a water bottling plant in Waitsburg. Mayor Pro Tem Marty Dunn said the meeting would last just one hour and set a two-minute speaking limit as he warned the crowd against name calling and asked for "polite and interested people" to share their thoughts and information.

Dunn's requests were intended to avoid a replay of the council's July 20 regular meeting during which citizens spoke passionately for hours, expressing their opposition to Nestle' Waters' exploration of Waitsburg as a potential site for a $50 million water bottling facility that would employ up to 50 people, according to the company.

At the July 20 meeting, citizens were outraged to learn that, unbeknownst to council members, Nestle' had already begun exploratory work in the city's watershed in a "handshake deal" with Mayor Walt Gobel and City Manager Randy Hinchliffe. The council then ordered that Nestle' cease and desist all explorations until they could gather more information.

Mayor Gobel resigned Tuesday. This came after residents staged demonstrations in the city park and asked for his recall, saying he had overreached his authority and acted secretively. Gobel, who said he wasn't given an opportunity to adequately explain the chain of events, said he resigned because he felt his reputation had been irreparably damaged.

Throughout the Aug. 2 community meeting, Dunn stated that the purpose was to gather information and to hear from the community and that no decisions would be made.

Passions were still high, but tongues were in check as meeting organizer and council member Kate Hockersmith walked the room, asking attendees to state briefly whether they were for or against Nestle''s involvement in Waitsburg. The overwhelming majority of speakers expressed strong opposition to Nestle'.

Waitsburg resident Joe Patrick said if the city allows Nestle' to do any more work on the city's water system and then doesn't let them build a water bottling plant the city should expect "a big fat bill" for the work. "I say cut this off before we get any deeper. We're not dealing with Mr. Nice Guy here."

Patrick's wife, Gail Gwinn, said good press like the turnout at a recent ArtWalla Community Network event will send folks to Waitsburg. "Bringing Nestle' Water here with its reputation for unstoppable water mining in even the most drought stricken areas of the country will not bring the kind of press we want," she said.

"I live on the North Fork and I'm really against it," said longtime resident and farmer Roy Porier.

Resident and former council member Delores Nettles said that the city had considered building a water bottling plant in the past. "It was turned down flat before. We did all of the research and it was determined that it would contaminate the watershed if we trucked water in and out like they say they're going to do," she said.

"I'm definitely a big no for this. Water is very precious. We probably have the sweetest water there is. We need to protect it and keep it for ourselves," said local Ed Lambert.

Resident Ron Mings said Waitsburg does need business but this is not the right company or the right approach. He said Nestle' is claiming to employ 50 people but that the company's plants in Utah, Iowa, and Montana employ only nine to 13 people once they are established. Mings then read a list of twelve creeks that he said were all dry, within a ten mile radius of Waitsburg.

Resident Susan Donegan said she worked in the executive office of "an international very prosperous business" and urged the council to be very careful who they "get into bed with."

"Regardless of what a big corporation with very deep pockets will tell us up front about how much water they're going to take, we will have no bargaining power after the contracts are signed. If they decide to do something that we don't agree with, our options are very limited and we don't have the resources to fight them in a long litigation. We would just be a gnat on their backside and we would be powerless," she said.

Waitsburg attorney Mike Hubbard said he made a public records request to the city to learn that the Nestle' deal was afoot in early Dec. 2015 and that Nestle' is being represented by K&L Gates, a 2,000 member plus law firm. "You're dealing with a force here beyond any we are used to dealing with," he said.

Hubbard said documents show that Nestle' is proposing not just to tap into the city's water but to run a parallel pipeline through the city line. He said existing water easements and deeds were granted for municipal purposes. "To put in a separate pipeline to serve a for-profit bottling company is not going to pass," he said.

Markeeta Little Wolf requested that a Keep Nestle' Out of the Walla Walla Valley petition, bearing 1,258 electronic signatures, be entered into the council minutes. Wendy Whittle, who initiated the petition, objected from an ecological perspective saying that 1,500 water bottles are put into the ocean and garbage dumps every second.

But not everyone was against Nestle'.

John Leiberman said he was neither for nor against. "I don't have the information, and I don't think anybody in this room really does. I think the way the council approached it by getting in bed with Nestle' and letting them mess around in the watershed before the community knew it has invoked a great emotional response.

Leiberman said that there was a lot of work that needed to be done to see if the project made sense and said that there may be other water companies that would provide a better fit than Nestle'. "This group cannot make a decision. All we can do is talk from emotional response," he added.

JP said he grew up in a town about Waitsburg's size that had a local-driven water bottling plant. He said it didn't bring negative repercussions and did create many jobs. "But with a major corporation, I'm concerned that we haven't looked at all the negative repercussions and what we can do to control that if we find that it's having more negatives than positives so we aren't locked into a long term situation and can't get back to where we are now," he said.

Resident Deb Foreman said she worked 40 years as a commercial real estate appraiser and broker and said the cart is being put before the horse. "How can we judge a situation without letting Nestle' and the city do the due diligence they need to do?" she said.

Foreman said that, from her professional experience, it's not unusual for a company of Nestle''s size to spend millions to investigate a facility like this. "I am neither pro nor con but as a citizen I would like the facts. I would like to know what kind of dollars would come into the community in terms of property taxes and B&O taxes, and how much would be funded to the schools. I think, as citizens, we deserve that kind of knowledge. I urge the council to at least give Nestle' and the city and opportunity to investigate this," she added.

Longtime resident Bill Hinchliffe spoke in support of the proposal. "People say they want to keep Waitsburg the same but I can't see how. Our hardware store has 29 days left and they're closing. The grocery store is up for sale. The business district looks bleak to me," he said.

Hinchliffe used the City of Washtucna as an example. "They had two companies want to come in and help them out and they turned it down. Today there are 31 kids in high school and they have a business district of one tavern downtown. If you're looking to help Waitsburg, I think it's a remarkable deal," he added.

"I want to remind everyone that we brought this on ourselves when we made arrangements with the Port authority about 10 or 12 years ago to send a letter around the country advertising our water. This is a direct result of that letter. Knowing that, I don't think we should accept this first offer. We should look for a better compromise," said resident Skip Carpenter.

Following the public input portion of the meeting, Port of Walla Walla Economic Development Director Paul Gerola gave a brief history of the Port's involvement with the City of Waitsburg and Nestle'. He said that in 1999 he worked with former Commissioner Ken Jantz to determine that Waitsburg's biggest asset was water. Gerola said the Port met with the Waitsburg City Council and the city's economic development committee and was asked to market Waitsburg's water.

"As a matter of fact, the city wanted a bottled water project so bad they actually outright permitted use. They did a zone code amendment, they put it in their comprehensive plan, it was their main goal to bring a water bottling plant here. That's how the lead was generated," Gerola said.

Gerola said it's Waitsburg's water and the city can do what it wants with it. "Whatever you guys want is what we will help you do. But if you go down this road, my advice is that the devil is in the details. It's a long process. Make sure that you hire professionals to give you facts," he said.

He said the two facts they do know is that Nestle' is willing to invest $50 million in a plant that will bring in 50 jobs. "From a standpoint of economic development the assessed value of Waitsburg is $60 million. If you had a company come in here and invest $50 million your taxes are definitely going down," he said.

Walla Walla County Commissioner Perry Dozier listed five large companies that he said pay close to 10% of all the county's property taxes. "What that means to individual taxpayers is that you can lessen the burden on your individual taxes as things go forward. But there again, I'm not promoting Nestle' or against it, I'm saying don't just lock the door until you can see what opportunities are there," he said.

As the meeting ended, Hockersmith took the floor to call for a vote. "We had seven people undecided, six saying we should look at other things, three for Nestle', and 43 against. I feel like this is something we shouldn't have to go through for months and months I have absolutely no problem making a motion saying this is not a good fit," she said, to a standing ovation from the crowd.

Dunn yelled over the raucous crowd, repeating that no motions would be made that night and the meeting was adjourned. The city's next regular council meeting will be Aug. 17 at the Lions Club building at the Waitsburg fairgrounds.