Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 20, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People
MOUNT SHASTA WATER BOTTLING PLANT PROPOSAL:
Reports offer opposing outlooks for McCloud - Redding Record Searchlight
WATER POLICY:
Editorial: State gets closer to water bond -
MOUNT SHASTA WATER BOTTLING PLANT PROPOSAL:
Reports offer opposing outlooks for McCloud
Redding Record Searchlight – 11/20/07
By Kimberly Ross, staff writer
One report warns a "super-size" water bottling plant would zap McCloud jobs and shortchange the small town for its precious natural resource.
Another report highlights the hundreds of jobs and $23 million income the same bottling plant would nurture in
The conflicting reports, both released Monday, discuss Nestle Waters North America's plans and potential economic impact.
The world's largest water bottling company hopes to build a 1-million-square-foot plant in McCloud, a former lumber mill town.
An environmental impact report on the project is expected to be recirculated this spring.
Eugene, Ore.-based ECONorthwest, which conducts economic analysis of public policy, composed its report on behalf of the McCloud Watershed Council.
It concluded Nestle would buy water too cheaply from the McCloud Community Services District, council board member Debra Anderson said. Under contract, Nestle would purchase water from the district for $26.40 per acre foot -- well below a 2004 state average for lease rates of $80 per acre-foot.
"When the logging companies were here ... they would not have given away or sold a board foot for mere pennies,"
Nestle project manager Dave Palais said the $26.40 price doesn't include the $100,000 a year it will pay into its Community Enhancement Program or its "exclusivity payment," made to the district to prevent it from selling to a competing water bottler.
That payment starts at $150,000 a year and grows to $250,000 by the plant's 10th year, Palais said.
Adding in those contributions brings the acre-foot price to at least $187, Palais said. They are part of its contract and were kept separate from the water payment at the services district's request, he said. That allows the district to spend money on a variety of needs rather than just water service improvements.
ECONorthwest also warns that Nestle's large building and truck traffic could hurt the former lumber mill town that now relies on tourism. The firm says the area would gain about $1 million in annual property taxes, but could lose its growing reputation for outdoor beauty, excellent fishing and appeal to retirees, threatening tourism jobs instead of increasing overall employment.
A look at other communities with water bottling plants found they "are not strong engines for local economic growth," but create mostly production jobs with relatively low wages, ECONorthwest author Kristin Lee said.
Palais said Nestle's workers would be paid a minimum of $10 an hour, plus benefits; more experienced employees will be paid in the upper half of a range of wages paid to employees in similar jobs in the area, based on a future pay survey.
The plant is expected to launch with about 60 employees and grow to about 240 by full buildout, expected to be eight to 10 years after opening.
The Center for Economic Development at
The
It forecasts an additional 169 employees at businesses supplying goods and services to the plant. Nestle's presence would increase local spending at existing businesses and spark new ones. Employees who work at the plant would buy lunch and other items locally, even if they don't live in McCloud.
That economic stimulation is much needed, said Tonya Dowse, the economic development council's executive director.
"
http://www.redding.com/news/2007/nov/20/reports-offer-opposing-mccloud/
WATER POLICY:
Editorial: State gets closer to water bond
Like an imperceptible leak from a broad levee, the perception that
The latest watermark that a change of thinking is taking place was the admission by state Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, that Democrats might support new dam projects, including one at Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River.
Perata tentatively agreed to set aside $3 billion to study the idea of three dams in the
If Perata follows through on that notion, it would be first time in decades a California Democrat at the state level committed money to the idea of building new water storage projects in the state. Even former state Senator, now Congressman Jim Costa, D-Fresno, only managed to get funding for CalFed projects that would study water conservation and quality. The three-letter "D" word was always left unspoken.
Dams are being talked about more and more by all kinds of interests now, however: Democrats as well as Republicans, urban and rural, environmental and agricultural.
The reason is that many more people are understanding that
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a comprehensive water bond on the presidential primary ballot on Feb. 5. He called an emergency session of the Legislature to get that bond, and the Legislature has been meeting for a couple of weeks. It has until Nov. 26 to approve a bond.
Schwarzenegger wants money for all kinds of projects: new and increased reservoirs, conservation, water quality projects, improvements to the Bay Delta system of canals and levees and more. Democrats have stopped short of endorsing anything that would include new dams. Until now.
As a political watershed, this would be significant, because it would mark a change of policy for Democrats — recognition that future water demands will not be met with conservation or redistribution alone.
As a change in thinking, the significance is much larger. And it needs to be even more contagious: What happens with water storage and development in the Sierra Nevada also affects the water quality in the Bay Delta, which also has an impact on urban water quality and quantity, which also affects the ground water that many cities live depend on, which has an impact on how much water farmers can use, and so on.
Perata, for instance, is recognizing that restoring the health of the Bay Delta estuary will require a healthy flow of fresh water through the Delta system so that salty sea water doesn't back up the channels and affect wildlife, urban life and agriculture.
Storing more surface water so that river flows can cleanse the Delta is one solution. He is willing to trade off traditional Democratic opposition to dams to solve a problem that affects tens of millions of his constituents.
The Legislature has not yet approved the water bond the governor wants for February. And certainly
But with a change in thinking that recognizes how all those problems are related, the state can take a step toward some of those solutions. #
DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost1.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of
No comments:
Post a Comment