Nestle Waters North America is hoping to allay any fears Michigan residents may have for it's plans to increase the amount of water it pulls from the ground at its well site near Evart. As part of that effort, the company held an informational meeting at the Morton Township Firehall in Mecosta County on Tuesday.

 

Nestle Waters North America Natural Resource Manager Arlene Anderson-Vincent says there are more questions than concerns about their pumping operations and they want people to know they are operating responsibly.

 

“We've been operating now for over 15 years and we monitor, we have over 100 monitoring points, we do our due diligence and we monitor the streams and the flows and the groundwater. We do aquatic studies on top of groundwater levels and stream flows, which is very unique.”

 

Anderson-Vincent notes that their operation uses less than a fraction of a percent of all bottled water pumped in the state and the well in Osceola County is an eight inch diameter well that is smaller than many irrigation wells.

 

And, she says, their request to increase their pumping capacity to 400 gallons per minute from the current 250 gallons per minute doesn't mean they will use that much water.

 

“Our water withdrawal in 2015 was 60 gallons a minute, so we don't pump at the total capacity. There are times, short durations that we may pump [that much], but we don't run it at full permitted capacity around the clock.”

 

Company leaders at Nestle say they’re expanding to meet increased demand. The Ice Mountain plant in Stanwood has seen a 13 percent increase in demand over last year and for that, they need more water, officials say.

 

Anderson-Vincent adds they do a lot to improve ground water quality in the area because they have a vested interested in making sure their operation is sustainable.