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Cloud over McCloudA perpetually flowing drinking fountain greets thirsty tourists and locals at the old mercantile store in the tiny town of McCloud. The water symbolizes this Northern California community's close link to the springs that spout out of the base of Mount Shasta and once supplied an old lumber mill that until 2003 provided employment for many of McCloud's residents. It is the future of this water that has divided the 1,343-resident town after the giant Swiss corporation Nestle announced plans to build a 1 million-square foot bottling plant on the old mill site that would sprawl over 22 acres. "This is the super center of water bottling," said retired 72-year-old McCloud resident Frank DeRoss, one of many local critics of the Nestle proposal. Located next to Hoo-Hoo Park, the bottling facility would operate round the clock, eventually hiring up to 240 employees and generating as many as 1,100 vehicle trips a day. Nestle would use 1,600 acre-feet of water a year, or 522 million gallons — about the same as the residents currently use — according to the McCloud Community Services District, the governing body for this unincorporated town. A district official says the springs produce about 8,000 to 9,000 acre-feet annually on average. The water, supplied by snow and glacial melt, is so pure that it doesn't have to be treated before it flows out of taps. Nestle wants to join a growing number of bottling companies that have capitalized on water around the 14,162-foot peak. Other companies include Dannon outside the city of Mount Shasta, Crystal Geyser near Weed and Mount Shasta Spring Water between Shasta and Dunsmuir. DeRoss, like many residents, is suspicious of Nestle and of the services district entering into a contract with what he believes was insufficient public notice. The contract itself was struck down by a lower court, which cited problems with entering into a sales agreement before an environmental review had been completed. An appeal filed by Nestle and the services district is pending. On a separate front, the McCloud Watershed Council, of which DeRoss is a member, will challenge the $400,000, 540-page environmental report that Nestle just completed this month, citing such problems as noise and traffic. While some residents say the plant could ruin the town, others embrace it. Tony Kydd, who worked at the mill for 25 years before its closure, sees very little downside to the Nestle plan. "We need industry, period," he said. "This one seems remarkably clean." His two children have left the area, and Kydd says they won't be able to return because there is a lack of good-paying jobs. Starting wages at the Nestle plant are $10 an hour. He, along with about 50 other residents, attended a hearing Tuesday night to discuss the environmental report issued by Nestle. Kydd said the information he heard from the watershed council did very little to change his mind about the project. "Admittedly, that's a lot of trucks, but no more than the mill," he said. Up to 100 logging trucks came to the mill every day, but the Nestle report states the bottling facility expects up to 300 trucks, amounting to 600 total trips. In addition, 240 employees could create another 480 trips a day. Kydd said that the mill wasn't open around the clock, so even though it looks like more trips for the bottling facility, they would be spread over 24 hours. He said Nestle will be using about as much water as the mill did, which makes it a wash in his mind. Overall, he said compared to the mill, "This will have less light pollution, less noise pollution, less dust. It's hard to see the downside." DeRoss describes what is referred to locally as the "Mother McCloud syndrome." He said the syndrome is about old-timers who fondly remember the days when the mill provided everything for the townspeople, even piping hot water to the workers' houses to provide a heat source during the cold winters. DeRoss said many of the locals have the false sense that Nestle will provide the same sense of economic security. Debra Anderson, whose ancestors started a dairy farm in the 1800s in the McCloud area, has reluctantly found herself as the chairman of the McCloud Watershed Council, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting the resources of the area. "If it wasn't for my passion for this town, you'd never see me do this," she said. Anderson, a real estate agent who lives part-time in Chico in the Sacramento Valley to the south, said McCloud is basically selling one of its most precious resources to a large corporation that has no stake in the community. "Whoever owns the water, owns the land," she said. What bothers Anderson and others is the possibility that the town might literally be left high and dry during a drought year. She worries that even if Nestle efforts are blocked, the company might draw still draw water out of wells, jeopardizing other wells downstream. Many townspeople were hoping that the old mill site would have been rehabilitated into shops and small businesses to give a boost to the local economy. But Nestle, she said, already has razed the mill and plans to remove the other old buildings on the site despite their historical importance for the town. She sharply criticized the services district for signing a contract with Nestle without consulting the town first. "We voted on whether to pay more for snowplows and for street lighting, but we didn't vote to give away our water," she said. What's happening to McCloud, could happen to any community if a large corporation decides to move in, said Anderson. "People throughout the U.S. need to be educated about this," she said. McLoud is a collection of turn-of-the-last century buildings such as the McCloud Hotel, the Stony Brook Inn and the Century House Inn. At the Guest House built in 1907, famous newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst donated a billiard table that still graces a second-story room. In a town loaded with history and situated among the trees at the base of Mount Shasta, Anderson said the town has a lot to lose from the Nestle bottling plant. "You can't say it doesn't affect the integrity of the town," she said. Mike Stacher, general manager of the services district, described the Nestle proposal as a very clean project. "I don't think it will change the character of the town," he said. "The character of the town is really about the character of its residents." Stacher, who became general manager after the contract was signed more than two years ago, disputes critics' objections to the way the district handled the agreement. Because it regarded the sale of real property, many of the negotiations took place in closed sessions, said Stacher, who also works as wine steward on the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train. He said it wasn't a decision that was entered into lightly, but was carefully scrutinized by the board and staff. He said a hearing was held to discuss the Nestle contract, and at the end of the meeting, the district approved the agreement. Stacher said it wasn't put to a vote of the people, because the district is only required to ask for voter approval on taxes, such as for snow removal or a lighting district. Like a lot of other communities in California and Oregon, McCloud is looking at deficits in the coming fiscal year and is looking at a tax proposal this November to keep fire and ambulance services at current levels. Out of a budget of $1 million annually, the services district would see another $300,000 from Nestle as part of the deal, said Stacher. This money could be used to improve local parks or to help pay for fire and ambulance, he said. While Stacher said he hates to see the town battling over this issue, he said he has to be extremely cautious in his dealing with Nestle. "I am so careful," he said. "If me and one of the guys from Nestle goes to lunch, I pay for my own meal, even if he offers to pay the $9." Dennis Dalton, a butcher at the local market, said the controversy started before he joined the board of directors at the community service district. The 57-year-old McCloud resident emphasizes that his comments reflect his own personal views. He said he had reservations about the contract, saying he doesn't think it provides enough income to the town over its 100-year life. "I would only be upset about that," he said referring to the contract. A survey conducted by opponents of the bottling plant asked local residents how they felt about the contract signed by the services district with Nestle. It found that 77 percent of the households contacted said they didn't like it. About 70 percent of the households contacted offered an opinion. While Dalton thought the survey results would have shown more opposition to the proposal, he criticized the survey because he thinks it asked the wrong question. "Instead of do they (the residents) want the project, they asked, do they want the contract?" he said. Although he thinks the contract could have provided a better deal for the town, he's not upset about the idea of a water bottling plant, saying it would have a lot less impact than the mill had. As to residents who remember the good old days of the mill, Dalton said, "They like to talk about Mother McCloud, but if you got hurt or you retired, you couldn't continue to live here." David Palais, Natural Resource Manager for Nestle Waters North America, said he thinks most fears and concerns raised by residents have been addressed in the environmental report. "It's a serious environmental application," he said. "It's not a half-hearted document." A bottling plant in McCloud isn't something that just came out of nowhere, Palais said "The town's been looking for a bottled water company for almost 10 years." Nestle's proposed plant is no bigger that the size of the original mill, and because the facility will be located just outside of town it will have very little impact on the community, said Palais. Nestle does have plans to destroy the remaining buildings on the mill site, he said. Truck traffic would be routed outside of town through an easement secured from another property owner, he said. In the case of a drought, Nestle would not just continue to bottle water and leave the town high and dry, said Palais. "If there is a drought and restrictions are placed on the community members and businesses in town, we will be treated the same way," he said. Nestle has also met resistance to bottling operations in other states, including Maine and Michigan, said Palais. Richard McFarland, who owns the wood reclamation business Terramai in McCloud, worries that Nestle will continue taking water out during drought years that could ultimately affect the amount of water flowing into underground aquifers, threatening wells downstream. He said his reading of the contract suggests that Nestle might have to limit the amount of water it uses for landscaping, but not necessarily for its bottling operation. "Everybody else is subject to water rationing in other parts of the world, but Nestle takes their 1,600 acre-feet regardless," he said. McFarland, also a member of the watershed council, said he could envision scenarios under which he personally would support a bottling plant locally. "If it was a smaller plant, and the community got more benefits, and there were more safeguards," he said. Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune.com. |
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Real estate agent Debra Anderson is one of several McCloud, Calif., residents who are heading up the fight against Nestle's plans to build a large-scale water bottling facility on the town's former timber mill site. (Mail Tribune / Denise Baratta)
