Crystal Geyser loses bid to pump mineral water from Napa

By KEVIN COURTNEY
Napa Valley Register

NAPA — Concerned about global warming and millions of plastic water bottles, the Napa City Council won’t let Crystal Geyser tap into a city aquifer for mineral water.

Crystal Geyser’s well application was rejected on a 3-2 vote Tuesday, with Councilman Mark van Gorder saying that bottled water companies were contributing to global warming by putting their product in billions of plastic containers.

Crystal Geyser’s proposal to dig a well beneath Napa Valley Corporate Park was “one of the worst projects that’s been proposed while I’ve been on the Planning Commission or the City Council,” van Gorder said.

Plastic water bottles have become a lightning rod for criticism by environmentalists who want consumers to reduce packaging whose production creates greenhouse gases.

Mayor Jill Techel based her opposition on her desire to protect Napa’s underground water supply. “We shouldn’t be mining it and shipping it out of our jurisdiction,” she said.

Crystal Geyser, which is based in Calistoga, had produced multiple reports from hydrologists who said extracting 100 acre feet annually would have no impact on the area’s underground supply. One hundred acre feet is about the quantity consumed by 300 homes in a year.

Far greater quantities have been extracted from the area for industrial use in the early 20th century without any impact, they said. The aquifer under Napa Valley Corporate Park is rich in water, unlike the water-deprived Coombsville area that sits atop another water formation, hydrologist James Strandberg said.

The company submitted plans to monitor the water table weekly. If it showed signs of dropping or Napa were hit with a multi-year drought, the company agreed to cut back production.

Responding to council concerns about traffic, Crystal Geyser submitted a plan to keep its double-tanker trucks off the road during morning and afternoon rush hours.

The bottler planned 20 truck visits to 920 Anselmo Court daily. Trucks would haul 126,000 gallons daily to the company’s bottling plant in Calistoga.

“It’s in our interest to protect this resource,” said Peter Gordon, a founding partner at Crystal Geyser.

Council members Juliana Inman and Peter Mott supported Crystal Geyser’s proposal, saying that environmental and operational concerns had been mitigated.

“Regardless of how I may not like it, I think they’re within their rights to draw that water out,” Mott said.

Van Gorder countered that the project’s environmental analysis didn’t take into account the impact of the plastics industry on global warming. As a petroleum-based product, plastic generates a lot of greenhouse gasses during its production, he said.

Councilman Jim Krider voted against the project, saying bottled water contributed to environmental degradation while generating no jobs or taxes for Napa. Crystal Geyser, which had applied for a well permit as Triton Naturals, had volunteered to pay $36,000 annually to the city for road maintenance.

The Planning Commission had rejected Crystal Geyser’s application, calling water extraction an incompatible use for a light industrial park.

Owners of office condominiums at an adjacent property, Napa Valley Venture Commerce, protested the water operation. It would generate noisy truck traffic next to high-end office and hotel uses, they said.

The city’s attorney will come back at a future meeting with a motion detailing the various environmental and land use considerations that make Crystal Geyser’s well at bad fit for Napa Valley Corporate Park.

Crystal Geyser had offered to change its mineral water label to credit Napa for its water. The company’s 18-ounce plastic bottles would have said, “From our natural mineral water sources in Napa and Northern California.”

“It’s nice to have Napa mentioned,” Techel said before voting against the project.

12:15 p.m. update

Concerned about global warming and millions of plastic water bottles, the Napa City Council won’t let Crystal Geyser tap into a city aquifer for mineral water.

Crystal Geyser’s well application was rejected on a 3-2 vote Tuesday, with Councilman Mark van Gorder saying bottled water companies were contributing greatly to global warming by putting their product in billions of plastic containers.

Crystal Geyser’s proposal to dig a well beneath Napa Valley Corporate Park was “one of the worst projects that’s been proposed while I’ve been on the Planning Commission or the City Council,” van Gorder said.

In rejecting the project, Mayor Jill Techel said underground water was an invaluable natural resource.

“We shouldn’t be mining it and shipping it out of our jurisdiction,” she said.

Crystal Geyser, based in Calistoga, had produced multiple reports from hydrologists who said extracting 100 acre feet annually would have no impact on the underground supply.

“It’s in our interest to protect this resource,” said Peter Gordon, a founding partner at Crystal Geyser.

Check back later in the day for more on this story.

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