The Chaffee Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) will convene once again as the 1041 Permit Authority, at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17 to continue its consideration of the Nestlé Waters North America, Inc. 1041 permit application.
Nestle bottling plant in California. Image USA Today
The public hearing is a continuation from the Nov. 10 afternoon session, a more than three-hour meeting in which they laboriously worked through the set of requirements that must be considered for a 1041 permit. In that session they made no decisions; they simply worked through the list, noting which seemed satisfied immediately, which had questions and concerns related to them, which might require expert input, and which would be particularly complicated to discern.
The BoCC also decided to allow additional public comment during the Nov. 10 session, because Nestlé had submitted some additional conditions and offered a few new concessions on which the public had not had the opportunity to comment.
Nestlé is seeking a renewal of its ten-year permit to pump water from Ruby Mountain Springs on its property, pipe it to its Johnson Village pumping station, and truck it to its Denver bottling plant. The case has dragged on for months, due not just to the county executing the required public notice within the legal timeframes, but also months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the moment, Nestlé is operating on a permit extension through Dec. 31, 2020, while the hearings proceed.
All documents regarding this hearing may be found on the Chaffee County Public Notice website at http://www.chaffeecounty.org/Public-Notices
Due to the restrictions on public gatherings, the public hearing will be done via zoom,
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