Sidewinder Enterprises, a development company that aims to build a bottling plant in Jefferson County, says a rejection from the local planning commission won’t mark the end of its effort to build the plant.
Updated on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 11:41 a.m.
A unanimous “no” from the Jefferson County Planning Commission might not signal the end of Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility.
Plans for Mountain Pure, a million-square-foot bottling plant proposed for the historic village of Middleway, appeared on commissioners’ desks last November. Commissioners voted down a revised plan from Sidewinder Enterprises, the single-purpose development company leading the project, on March 11.
But management partner Sean Masterson says his team is currently “pursuing all options” to bring the project to fruition.
In an email statement provided to West Virginia Public Broadcasting through a media representative Monday, Masterson maintained that the project would bring financial benefit to the region, including new jobs and tax dollars.
“We disagree with the planning commission’s motion to reject our concept plan,” Masterson wrote. “We also disagree with the notion that this project is not within the parameters of the zoning ordinance.”
Members of the commission voted against the project proposal on the grounds that it does not adhere to county zoning laws, including a provision that forbids development that destroys protected historic sites. The Middleway Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Since Sidewinder presented the commission its plan for Mountain Pure last fall, the project has faced overwhelmingpushback from residents concerned about its impact on the environment, water levels, traffic and historic preservation in Middleway and neighboring communities.
Protect Middleway is a local grassroots organization that formed in opposition to the Mountain Pure project plan. In a message to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, organizer Jessie Norris said the group’s members “stand by the planning commission’s decision,” which they said reflected both concerns from the and conflicts with local zoning ordinances.
“We support businesses that coexisting respectfully with the historic village and local farmers. We hope they choose a path that fosters cooperation rather than conflict,” Norris wrote. “How they proceed will show whether they intend to work with the community as ‘good corporate neighbors’ or dismiss the legitimate concerns of residents and county leaders.”
**Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include a comment from Jessie Norris, an organizer with Protect Middleway.
On this West Virginia Morning, Jefferson County rejected a proposal for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility last week, and our reporters get together with Brad McElhenny to discuss some of the major issues they covered from the Legislature last week.
On this West Virginia Morning, Jefferson County rejected a proposal for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility last week, a plant that would have extracted and packaged groundwater in the historic community of Middleway. For now, that decision bookends a protracted debate over local land use involving a developer, the county planning commission and hundreds of concerned residents. Jack Walker walks us through last week’s hearing.
And at the end of each week during the legislative session, our reporters get together to discuss some of the major issues they covered on The Legislature Today. We often invite a reporter from a different news organization to join us to get a different perspective and as last week wound to a close, Curtis Tate and Brianna Heaney were joined by MetroNews’ Brad McElhenny.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Maria Young produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The Jefferson County Planning Commission has unanimously rejected a revised concept plan for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility, a development proposal that has been mired in public concern since it was first presented to the commission last November.
The Jefferson County Planning Commission has unanimously rejected a revised concept plan for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility, a development proposal that has been mired in public concern since it was first presented to the commission last November.
Sidewinder Enterprises is the single-purpose development company behind Mountain Pure. The planning commission’s decision prevents Sidewinder from moving forward in the permitting process, let alone breaking ground on the project, unless they sue over the terms of rejection.
The company aimed to build a million-square-foot facility to extract and package local groundwater just a short walk from the Middleway Historic District, an eighteenth-century village in rural Jefferson County. But the plan faced a groundswell of pushback from residents concerned about excess water extraction, heavy truck traffic and the facility’s impact on the environment and historic integrity of Middleway.
The planning commission announced their decision more than seven hours into a heated public hearing, which stretched from 7 p.m. Tuesday to nearly 3 a.m. Wednesday. During a public comment period, 125 attendees delivered remarks; 122 of them spoke against the project.
The commission required project representatives to revise their concept plan in November, after unanimously ruling that an initial plan incompletely documented the project’s source water properties. Sidewinder swiftly submitted a revised plan, but its review was pushed back multiple months due to inclement weather and circuit court intervention.
Hundreds gathered for a Jefferson County Planning Commission hearing at Washington High School Tuesday, 125 of whom spoke during an hours-long public comment period.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
At the hearing, Sean Masterson, a management partner for Sidewinder, and Mark Dyck, vice president for planning firm Integrity Federal Services, walked the commission through their revised plan.
Masterson described some comments from residents as “a character attack on us as a business,” and said the project would be a boon to the local job market.
Dyck said the revised concept plan accurately documented all parcels of land associated with the project. In response to resident concerns, he also said project reps planned roadway safety modifications like a traffic circle, and water use stopgaps to prevent overextraction.
“That’s a pretty good guarantee,” Dyck said regarding the water limits.
Dyck also said the revised plan included a mechanism to detect the spread of toxic chemicals from the project site. A 2018 geological survey found that a plume of two toxic chemicals, trichloroethane and dichloroethene, exists in the groundwater beneath the proposed Mountain Pure site from past industrial activity.
The property was previously used by Kodak, a photography company, and 3M, a multinational conglomerate that has had to pay billions of dollars to settle lawsuits for contaminating waterways with “forever chemicals.” Farmers and environmentalists in the Middleway area have expressed particular concern that renewed water use at the site could produce chemical runoff, a claim which project representatives dispute.
From left, Jefferson County residents Richard Gee, Mary Gee and Tina Michael hold signs opposing the Mountain Pure project as they wait for Tuesday’s hearing to begin.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Members of the planning commission said they shared several resident concerns. Commission President Mike Shepp said he still worried the project would be overly burdensome on local traffic, adding that he would prefer to see an additional water study conducted before development.
Ultimately, members of the commission voted to reject the Mountain Pure concept plan on the basis that it did not comply with county policies.
Commissioner Cara Keys — who also represents Shepherdstown on the Jefferson County Commission — motioned to “reject the concept plan as presented, as it directly conflicts with our zoning ordinance.”
As part of her reasoning, Keys specifically cited Section 4.4-C of the Jefferson County Zoning and Land Development Ordinance, which states: “Any development which would destroy the historical character of a property listed on the West Virginia or National Register of Historic Places shall not be permitted.”
The Mountain Pure project would have installed a pipeline beneath the village to transport water, and would have required trucks to travel through Middleway’s streets to reach the site. Members of the commission unanimously agreed with the commissioner’s motion.
“We just made a motion to reject the concept plan for the bottling project in Middleway,” Keys told West Virginia Public Broadcasting shortly after the hearing. “We found, as a planning commission, that it did not coincide with our zoning ordinance and our subdivision regulations, so we rejected it unanimously.”
Dyck declined to comment on the Mountain Pure team’s behalf after the hearing.
Molly Sutter, a graduate student at Shepherd University, awaits her turn during the public comment period. She used her time to perform an original song voicing opposition to Mountain Pure.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Hundreds of residents of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle attended the hours-long hearing. While some left over the course of the night, dozens stayed until the end, including Stacy Chapman.
Chapman is a nurse, Middleway resident and lead organizer for Protect Middleway, a grassroots group that formed in opposition to the project. For months, Chapman and her team have hosted town halls, spoke out on social media and even knocked on neighbors’ doors to rally residents against the bottling facility proposal.
Chapman described the hearing as a culmination of months of hard work, and told WVPB she was “overjoyed” by its result. While she said the Mountain Pure team pursuing legal action would be unsurprising, Chapman said she views the commission’s decision as a win.
“It’s hard not to cry, because it was not just important to me. It was important to the community,” Chapman said just after the hearing. “It was important to the people who stewarded Middleway for the last 300 years.”
“We were determined that we were going to carefully steward Middleway just like they did,” she added. “And we did it tonight.”
Activists in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle are promoting local history. They hope it will encourage residents to support the preservation of a village they consider threatened by corporate development.
Updated on Tuesday, February 11 at 11:20 a.m.
Since 1851, the red spires of Grace Episcopal Church have peeked above the skyline of Middleway. For residents of the historic, eighteenth-century village, it is a space that remains full of life — made clear by a community advocacy gathering held on the evening of Jan. 31.
Shedding their rainwear, dozens of residents settled into the church’s squat wooden pews to hear about a water bottling plant proposed just a short walk from Middleway’s tiny village center.
The Jefferson County community has been embroiled in a months-long dispute over the proposed construction of Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility, a one-million-square-foot plant that would extract and package local groundwater. For months, residents have raised concerns about the project’s environmental, safety and historic preservation impacts.
Sidewinder Enterprises, the company behind the project, set forth an initial plan in November, but the Jefferson County Planning Commission ruled it incomplete, delaying it from advancing. After months of anticipation, the commission will review a revised concept plan for the project March 11.
Members of the Jefferson County community who oppose the plan have spent months voicing their dissent through community forums and letter-writing campaigns to local elected officials. As the day for the commission’s decision nears, events like the late January advocacy gathering have provided the community an opportunity to use art and local history to show why Middleway warrants protection.
Jessie Norris, president of the Middleway Conservancy Association, braves the rain to lead a tour of Middleway historic sites.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Protesting Through Song
Molly Sutter is a graduate student in Appalachian studies at Shepherd University. She wrote a song entitled “Mountain Pure” to express her worries about the project, and performed it during the gathering alongside fellow Jefferson County resident and postal clerk Jen Fisher.
“Mountain Pure, Mountain Pure. Make a problem, sell a cure,” they sang. “Leave the water for the people, and we’ll keep our mountains pure.”
“When I was looking at the Mountain Pure project, some of the things that they say are that they’re producing clean water and that they’re creating clean water,” Sutter explained. “Those are just such funny words to use for extracting water and taking it from farmers and from our community. So, a song kind of snowballed from there.”
Sutter said channeling public frustration into song feels natural in a state where music and culture has long informed activism.
“The state has a long history of protest and engagement, especially through music. I am a songwriter and singer, and I see that intersecting with my studies,” she said. “I’ll listen to a lecture about coal mining, and then I’ll go and write a song about it, because it just fires me up and I like to plug into that legacy.”
Fisher lives on the Opequon Creek, a tributary stream that feeds into Middleway’s waterways. She said in an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting that her participation in the gathering stemmed from concerns over water access for the local community.
“I see water as a basic need; as life. I don’t see this as a political issue or a revolutionary idea. It’s a self-evident truth,” Fisher wrote. “Since when did having water for your farm or your family become optional? These people have real worries, and as their neighbor, I worry with them.”
Music is not the only way residents are channeling West Virginia history into their opposition to the Mountain Pure project.
The Middleway Conservancy Association is a local nonprofit aimed at protecting the history and environmental health of the village.
Before the gathering, Conservancy President Jessie Norris offered a tour of the community’s nineteenth-century architecture — part of Jefferson County’s history she says is at risk.
“The pipeline that’s actually going to be coming in from the proposed bottling plant is going to come down this road right here, Old Middleway Road,” she said on the tour, gesturing at a street that passes through the historic village center. “It’s going to cut through here on East Street.”
The Mountain Pure facility would require pipelines to travel beneath the village’s centuries-old streets, connecting local waterways to an abandoned manufacturing site formerly operated by 3M.
Former industrial use at the site left behind a plume of toxic chemicals, and many residents have expressed concern that resumed industrial activity could produce toxic runoff for Middleway. Project representatives have repeatedly denied the possibility of chemical contaminants spreading.
After the gathering, residents were invited into Middleway’s Union Church. Local historians showed off Civil War-era artifacts collected around town, and maps of battle sites just a walking distance away.
Stacy Chapman is a nurse and Middleway resident. She’s also a lead organizer with Protect Middleway. The local activist group formed to push back against plans for the Mountain Pure project, and helped lead the advocacy gathering.
“It’s about the community and the community coming together,” Chapman said. “We feel like, with the strength of the community, that we will have a voice together, that the planning commission will hear us and listen to our concerns and deny the bottling plant’s concept plan.”
Molly Sutter is a graduate student in Appalachian studies at Shepherd University.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
DJ Kessinger performed the banjo at the advocacy gathering in Middleway on Jan. 31.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Chapman said Protect Middleway has received support from regional organizations that share that mission including Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a clean-water public interest law group, and the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, which advocates for the protection of historic buildings.
Danielle Parker is the Preservation Alliance’s executive director. She said protecting Middleway’s historic integrity is a benefit to West Virginia and beyond.
“Middleway is a very rare historic treasure, not only for the state but the entire nation,” Parker said. “It has survived almost three centuries of growth and decline, and we feel that the water bottling facility, if it’s constructed as proposed, is threatening the longevity [and] the continued preservation of the village.”
In late January, the Preservation Alliance added the Middleway Historic District to its West Virginia Endangered Properties List. The list aims to highlight historic sites that are in danger of being destroyed.
Parker said it is rare to see so many community members rally around a preservation effort.
“I am overwhelmed, honestly, with the turnout. I am surprised that the whole church was filled, even up in the higher pews,” she said after the gathering. “There have been very few places [where] we’ve seen such a groundswell of citizen support to save a historic site like we’re seeing here in Middleway.”
“That is very encouraging, because, as I have said, we feel that public opinion can sway the future of a situation,” she added.
The Road Ahead
Sidewinder Enterprisesdenies that the project would have a detrimental impact on historic preservation and traffic.
Sean Masterson is a partner for Mountain Pure. In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting he provided through a media representative, Masterson pointed to the past usage of the manufacturing site by other companies as proof. He also said the project has received approval from state highway officials.
Community members at Grace Episcopal Church await the start of an advocacy gathering held to oppose the proposed construction of a water bottling plant in Middleway.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Since the 1960s, 3M and Kodak operated successfully with employee and distribution traffic traveling directly through Middleway daily,” Masterson said. “Additionally, West Virginia owns the nearby roads. A traffic study was done by a third party and the West Virginia Department of Highways approved the study.”
But folks like Chapman maintain that environmental risks, an increase in traffic and the toll of the pipeline’s construction put historic Middleway at risk.
“Middleway needs protection from Sidewinder’s Mountain Pure bottling plant,” she said. “It’s going to affect our water supply. We’re worried about some toxins that could come into our drinking water. We’re worried about how the traffic will affect historic Middleway. We’re concerned about the protection for the wetland that could be impacted by the large water extraction.”
These differing perspectives will come to a head on Tuesday, when the Jefferson County Planning Commission will review revised plans for the Mountain Pure bottling site.
The path for the project so far has been rocky. Project representatives shared an initial concept plan for the plant with the commission in November. But the commission unanimously agreed it was incomplete, because it omitted details about the parcels of land water would be extracted from.
Project representatives quickly resubmitted a revised version of the plan, and hoped to discuss it on Dec. 17. However, the review process was postponed by a circuit court judge, who said the project team and the planning commission had not given residents enough time to review the plan.
Next month, the commission could vote to advance the concept plan as is, require changes to comply with county and state code, or reject it outright. If they reject it, they would need to explain how the project violates state and county policies, and could face legal intervention.
The planning commission is scheduled to review the concept plan for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Plant on March 11. Residents will have the opportunity to provide comments at the meeting.
**Editor’s note: The Jefferson County Planning Commission was initially scheduled to review the revised concept plan for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility on Feb. 11. However, due to winter weather, the hearing was postponed to March 11. This story was updated to reflect the meeting’s postponement.
On this West Virginia Morning, months of anticipation will come to a head this week as the Jefferson County Planning Commission reviews revised plans for a water bottling site in the rural community of Middleway.
On this West Virginia Morning, months of anticipation will come to a head this week as the Jefferson County Planning Commission reviews revised plans for a water bottling site in the rural community of Middleway.
In the months since the Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility was first proposed, Jefferson County residents have used art and historic education to voice their concerns over the project. Jack Walker reports.
Plus, a new rule issued in the final days of former President Joe Biden’s administration limits toxic dust in mines. It impacts industries like those affiliated with rock and sand quarries.
But here in coal country, the biggest concern is the connection between silica dust and severe, sometimes fatal, cases of black lung disease. As Roxy Todd with Virginia newsroom RadioIQ reports, Republicans have signaled opposition to the new safety rules in the past.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Maria Young produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia added the Middleway Historic District in southern Jefferson County to its West Virginia Endangered Properties List on Jan. 28.
Buildings along the streets of Middleway, a village in southern Jefferson County, date back to the late eighteenth century. But preservationists say a recent bottling plant proposal could place its historic integrity at risk.
The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV) added the Middleway Historic District to its West Virginia Endangered Properties List on Jan. 28. The district has been included in the National Register of Historic Places since 1980.
The new status comes after Sidewinder Enterprises proposed to construct the Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility atop a former Middleway manufacturing site in November. The project proposal has met an outpouring of community pushback over environmental, traffic and historic preservation concerns among residents.
Established in 1999, PAWV’s list is modeled after a country-wide endangered properties list from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, according to the PAWV website. The list aims “to bring attention to significant historic places in [West Virginia] communities that are in danger of being lost and to find solutions,” the website reads.
PAWV Executive Director Danielle Parker shared news of the district’s new status during a community forum in Middleway’s Grace Episcopal Church on Friday. She told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the current Mountain Pure plan is “threatening the longevity” of the village.
“Middleway is a very rare, historic treasure, not only for the state but the entire nation,” Parker said. “It has survived almost three centuries of growth and decline.”
PAWV has expressed specific concerns over the scale of the project, as outlined in a Jan. 28 press release.
Danielle Parker, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, delivers remarks at a Jan. 31 community forum in Middleway’s Grace Episcopal Church.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
As currently proposed, the project would extract more than 1 million gallons of water from a local aquifer per day, install a pipeline beneath the center of the historic district and expand on-site parking for tractor trailers, requiring large vehicles to travel through the narrow village street, the press release said.
“The additional heavy truck traffic on our narrow historic roads could cause significant damage to the stone-stacked foundations and increase the risk of collision as the streets are not wide enough to accommodate semi-trucks,” said Jessie Norris, president of the Middleway Conservancy Association, in the press release.
In an email statement provided through a media representative, Sean Masterson, a partner for Mountain Pure, denied that the project would have a detrimental impact on the local community, pointing to the previous usage of the manufacturing site by other companies.
“3M and Kodak operated successfully with employee and distribution traffic traveling directly through Middleway daily,” he wrote.
Masterson added that a traffic study for the project was approved by the West Virginia Department of Highways. “The DOH understands the roads, routes and historical nature of the community and knew all of this prior to the approval of the aforementioned study,” he wrote.
Norris also serves as an organizer for Protect Middleway, a local grassroots activist group opposing the Mountain Pure project. In the PAWV press release, she expressed concern that construction on the manufacturing site could also cause the spread of toxic chemicals into the village’s water supply, as a plume of chemicals was reported beneath the plant in a 2018 geological survey. Project representatives for Mountain Pure have previously denied the claim that these chemicals could spread.
“The challenges facing Middleway undeniably warrant its inclusion on the endangered properties list,” Norris said. “The scale and design of this proposed plant and the pipeline will cause irreparable damage to our historic village.”
Numerous residents of Middleway have placed signs opposing the Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility proposal outside of their houses.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Parker said that inclusion in the endangered properties list begins with a public nomination process, where community members can recommend sites for consideration. PAWV’s board then reviews submissions, votes on which properties to include and does publicity work to encourage its protection, she said.
Parker said she has held her role for about 13 years, but rarely seen the amount of community involvement in a historic preservation effort that she witnessed during Friday’s forum in Middleway.
“I am overwhelmed, honestly, with the turnout,” she said. “There have been very few places [where] we’ve seen such a groundswell of citizen support to save a historic site like we’re seeing here.”
The future of the Mountain Pure project is still unclear, but its proposal has faced setbacks in the past. The Jefferson County Planning Commission declared its initial concept plan incomplete in November. A circuit court judge postponed review of Sidewinder’s revised plan in December to give members of the public more time to review the proposal.
But the project proposal will return to the desks of county planning commissioners this month. The commission is scheduled to consider the revised application during its regular meeting Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., to be held in the Jefferson High School auditorium.
At Friday’s community forum, organizers with Protect Middleway urged attendees to provide comments during the meeting, and to write to elected officials regarding their concerns over the project.
Parker said she feels the amount of public engagement in Jefferson County could protect the long-term security of Middleway’s historic downtown.
“That is very encouraging,” Parker said. “We feel that public opinion can sway the future of a situation.”
