As emailed by author to WFFF:
Printed in the Daily InterLake on 8/19/2006:
If only Op-eds were subjected to fact checking. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver (owners of Montana Artesian Water) state they want to base the regulatory process in facts. Bravo!
Here are some facts taken directly from their DNRC permit and their 8/7/16 op-Ed in this paper. Page 24 of the DNRC permit states they want to produce 140,000 twenty ounce bottles per hour (1.2 billion a year) upon full build out.
Now in their op-ed, the Weavers claim that can be transported in 4 trucks a day. What would a truck capable of transporting 840,000 twenty ounce bottles (a fourth of the daily output) look like? DEQ should be embarrassed that they based their impact analysis on the building currently on site (stated on page 4 of that permit).
How about looking at what a factory capable of producing almost 200 million gallons/year of bottled water looks like? I did – it looks like a giant factory – (I googled water bottling plants that size). It is time for DEQ to admit the error of their ways and conduct a full Environmental Impact Study – now.
Or, the Weavers could amend their DNRC application to say they want to produce the amount of water that can be produced in the current building, and transported by 4 trucks a day.
Sandy Perry, Kalispell, MT