Anacortes plant would bottle Skagit River water
ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) - Anacortes and Skagit County are considering plans from a company that wants to build a big water bottling plant in the city.
The company called Tethys already has a contract with the city, which gets its water from the Skagit River.
KUOW reports the plant would use up to 5 million gallons of water a day, making it one of the largest water bottling plants in the country.
A city council vote Monday moved the process forward. Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell says the bottling plant would bring needed revenue to the city.
A land use application for the plant is being considered by Skagit County.
The company called Tethys already has a contract with the city, which gets its water from the Skagit River.
KUOW reports the plant would use up to 5 million gallons of water a day, making it one of the largest water bottling plants in the country.
A city council vote Monday moved the process forward. Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell says the bottling plant would bring needed revenue to the city.
A land use application for the plant is being considered by Skagit County.
The majority of the people of Anacortes community, Skagit Valley, and Puget Sound oppose or will soon oppose this shortsighted,  environmentally unsustainable, economically shortsighted plan.  Bottled water is bad enough by itself with the requirement of petroleum for each bottle (I don't care how many you recycle - bottled water is a stupid transfer of a the wealth of the commons to unaccountable corporations).  Salmon, heron, and the Puget Sound are our irreplaceable treasures. Â
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Humans well being is and people can certainly find a better way to create sustainable jobs in Skagit Valley - one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Â Â
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Some images and links to other articles and video of the recent hearing and protest:http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/406509_10152135666825206_1261515045_n.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8176/8028030440_b3efea8707_o.jpg
http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=28039
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/25689767
http://www.backbonecampaign.org/component/k2/item/76-skagitforsalmon-peopleÂ
I drove over that river yesterday and my father says to me "shoot looks like it's about to dry up."He was right it did look really low.I don't see them sucking that much out of there at a time like this.If they did it would dry up.
This is another strange Skagit County paradox. It has been recently ruled that some land owners here cannot build homes on land that would traditonally need a well for thier water. The well permits aren't being approved because of the damage that could potentially be done to the salmon runs in the Skagit River But it's fine to suck 5 million gallons per day out of the same river to sell. ???????
There has to be a balance between profit and real environmental sustainability. The immediate convenience of bottled water will be more costly when the implications from them require our immediate attention.
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I guess when the well dries out at this locations, they'll just tap into another.
The City of Anacortes can't get enough water to keep their town afloat, that's why they are building a huge water treatment plant in Mount Vernon, and having it pumped in. Now they want to use that pumped in water to front a large commercial operation? Something smells fishy here, and it isn't the Skagit River Steelhead.......
@Ranger Rick:Â
I'm wondering if this is the same company that the council in Everett tried to push through - there, it would have basically drained the city's aquifer. Thankfully, it did not get approved.
Why don't all you silly people who insist on drinking bottled water just take your bottles straight to the river and bottle it yourself? That way you won't have to pay up to a 4000% markup for water you could get right out of your tap, and you might save a seabird from dying with your plastic bottle embedded in its bowel.
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stupidity knows no bounds.
 @fyrefawx There are tons of products made of plastic that end up in not only landfills by not being recycled, but also in the bellies of the animals on this planet. Bottled water is just a very small segment of products stored/distributed in plastic.
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 @commonHuskyfan "...people in the U.S. toss 2.5 million plastic bottles into the trash PER HOUR instead of the recycling bin."  That's 8 out of 10 bottles purchased and that's ONLY in the U.S.  Not such a small segment - it's a very large segment.  I would think most concerned people would not want even one bottle to end up in the belly of an animal. Pretty horrible death. http://www.ehow.com/list_7285421_effects-not-recycling-water-bottles.html
 @fyrefawx The article reads that 8 out of 10 of 34.6 billion plastic "water" bottles end up in recycling, not 8 out of 10 total plastic bottles. While this may seem like an insignificant correction, my original point is that there are many other types of plastics that contribute to this issue - and so to infer that we should stop drinking bottled water seems a little over-zealous.
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I agree there is an issue here, but it seems more to do with education, and perhaps what our overall recycling process is, rather than an issue with consumption of bottled water.
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I am a big fan of not only bottled water (for varying reasons: taste, portability, Â know what I am getting, etc), but of recycling as well. I try to recycle everything that I can.Â
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I"m not going to change what I consider to be good practices just because others aren't on the ball.
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Hopefully, they are collecting the water upstream from Sedro Woolley!! Or else we've got the making for a good monster move!! :) (Just a joke)
"You can lead a horse to water...but you can't make 'um drink...." Oh wait. Does this apply here? My bad.
Come on people, quit buying bottled water.
 @oledawg Why not place your efforts on getting people to recycle instead of prohibition?
 @commonHuskyfan Why not do both.
 @commonHuskyfan  @oledawg I stand by the notion that we need to Reduce what we buy/use, Reuse what we're going to buy anyway, and Recycle what we can.  Recycling alone helps, but is not nearly as effective on its own.  If we use less glass, plastic and paper, we have less to worry about.