Nestle Waters Conducts Low-Flow Studies on McCloud’s Squaw Creek… Months Too Late
I’m late on this one, but better late than never when you’re posting an excellent example of how Nestle Waters – when finally forced to study the effects their water mining operations have on a watershed – isn’t particularly interested in playing fair.
At a recent meeting, the McCloud Services District voted 4-1 to allows Nestle to divert flows from Squaw Creek to study the effects their 600 gallons-per-minute water mining operation will have on the small creek and rest of the watershed.
The MCSD did so over the objections of a real fisheries biologist – Curtis Knight of CalTrout – who pointed out that low-flow studies would really only mean anything if they occurred during the late summer (August/September) time period, when the water is at its lowest and warmest.
Diverting water now – when cold air temperatures keep water temps from rising into the lethal range – isn’t good science.
Unfortunately, the local paper only printed one side of the issue (a refrain commonly heard among rural activists nationwide), and the reasons for Knight’s objection were obscured.
In supporting the diversion request from Nestle, the board signaled its intention to allow Nestle to immediately take action to study the effect of its proposed bottling operation on the Squaw Valley Creek as it progresses toward satisfying California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act reviews necessary to the permitting of the plant.
If the board had voted against the diversion, which many, including Curtis Knight of Cal Trout, asked that it do during the public comment period, Nestle’s proposed plant – already delayed by two to three more years – would have been stalled by yet another.
The optimal time to study low-flows occurs in the late summer/early fall, Palais countered in his rebuttal to Knight’s and other’s objections. Because the past two years have been particularly dry, doing the low flow study now will allow Nestle to study the Squaw Valley Creek when water levels are at their lowest, thereby answering critics’ concerns over what the estimated 600 gallons per minute consumed by the proposed plant will do to the creek during a drought.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on Nestle’s water mining studies.
