Category: Energy & Environment

Plans for a controversial water bottling plant in the tiny Jefferson County community of Middleway have been delayed after local officials deemed them incomplete.

During a tense meeting of the Jefferson County Planning Commission Tuesday evening, dozens of residents packed into a meeting room in the basement of the Charles Town Library.

More than 50 signed up to speak against the Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility, and tens more had to observe the meeting from a hallway due to a lack of space. No community members spoke in favor of the project.

Tuesday marked the first public forum for discussing a concept plan submitted to the commission by California-based Sidewinder Enterprises.

The company’s proposed 1-million-square-foot facility would be built atop a site formerly owned by industrial conglomerate 3M. The site is also located about a half-mile from a historic district containing 60 major buildings constructed in the late 18th or early 19th centuries.

The meeting lasted more than five hours, stretching past midnight. Outside the comment period, residents repeatedly called aloud concerns over the project’s impact on local development, traffic, historic preservation, water supply and ecology — and urged commissioners to reject it outright.

Representing the company were Vice President Mark Dyck and Principal Jason Gehart of civil engineering firm Integrity Federal Services. They argued the concept plan complies with state law.

The plan “meets all the requirements of the Jefferson County ordinances,” Dyck said. “So we believe that this is qualified and acceptable to move forward.”

Dyck said the company has also made some assurances to support the needs of the local community.

Namely, he said the company would pay to replace water wells for residents within 1,000 feet of the facility in its first two years of operation, should they have concerns about the quality of their groundwater. Plus, he said the company would place a traffic light at a nearby intersection.

Residents argued this was insufficient. Dyck said 22 households would fall within the 1,000 feet threshold, but members of the public said its impact would be felt throughout the 400-person community and beyond.

“When water levels drop critically low in Jefferson County, residents and farmers, not this California company will suffer water restrictions,” said Jefferson County resident Mary Gee.

Members of the commission expressed confusion over whether extracting water for commercial purposes was permitted under state law.

They also said the outpouring of community pushback showed Sidewinder did not provide the local community sufficient outreach or information — a sentiment affirmed by residents’ groans after Dyck erroneously referred to their community as “Middleburg.”

“If you want to be successful in Jefferson County, you have to get the people behind you,” said Commissioner J Ware. “Not the developer.”

Dyck argued the project would create jobs for the local community. He also said there is value in increasing water bottle production, referencing resident comments that the unexpected devastation of Hurricane Helene belies the importance of protecting the environment.

“It’s a little bit emotional for me, because my son was in Asheville,” Dyck said. “He would have so appreciated a bottle of water from Jefferson County.”

Residents were not notified ahead of the meeting where water for the bottling process would be sourced from. During the meeting, Dyck said it would be sourced from the local water supply, which elevated concerns from community members.

Jefferson County resident Benjamin Buckley said allowing a company to extract and profit from local groundwater was especially concerning in light of recent lawsuits against the site’s former owner, 3M.

Last year, the company was ordered to pay more than $10 billion in lawsuits tied to its role in spreading “forever chemicals” across waterways nationwide.

3M “came in here. Looks like they peed in the punch bowl,” Buckley said. “Looks like another outfit is going to come in and bottle it and sell it.”

Buckley was one of numerous residents who expressed concern over the toll of new factories and business developments on West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, the fastest growing region of the state.

The politics and geography of Jefferson County are key to Middleway’s selection for the water bottling plant, according to the project’s webpage.

Reasons for selecting Middleway include “West Virginia’s regulatory environment” and the area’s proximity to population centers in the northeast and southern United States, the website reads.

Other commenters likened the Sidewinder project to Rockwool, a Danish steel wool manufacturer that received overwhelming local pushback over environmental worries. The facility was placed under investigation in 2020, in part due to air and water quality concerns.

“This is Rockwool all over again, where government officials know what’s happening, and they don’t tell the public until it’s too late,” said Shepherdstown resident Billie Garde. “We’re tired of being run over.”

Despite the extent of community concern, commissioners said they were limited in their authority to reject the project. They said their role is to interpret whether the project is complete and adheres to state and county policies, not whether it is suitable for the local community.

But the submitted concept plan only included reference to the factory site, whereas Dyck said the project would pull water from a separate parcel of land. Two test wells for the project have already been drilled on a separate property near Lake Louise.

Commissioner Cara Keys said omitting additional parcels from the concept plan was inadequate, because it was an integral component of the factory. 

“You can’t have a bathtub without a waterline,” she said.

Legal counsel argued that rejecting the project due to local concerns fell outside the purview of the commission, and could require court intervention. But the commissioners felt Sidewinder’s omission of additional parcels was still relevant.

They voted unanimously that the concept plan was incomplete, sending it back to the company for modification and resubmission.

Meanwhile, the concept plan marks just an early stage of the planning process. The company could be required to make additional modifications to adhere to state and local standards if its project progresses.

After the meeting, Dyck told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the team plans to resubmit the plan with additional properties listed.

“We met all the other requirements,” he said. “I think the Planning Commission is obligated to follow the rules and regulations.”

Sidewinder’s ability to resubmit means that, for now, the commission’s decision only delayed its planning process.

But community members who spent hours waiting to hear the commission’s decision viewed it as a win, made clear by their cheers after the commission voted to send Sidewinder back to the drawing board.