[env-trinity] Redding.com: Crystal Geyser agrees to do an environmental report

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.redding.com/business/local-business/crystal-geyser-agrees-to-do-an-environmental-report_62286016

Crystal Geyser agrees to do an environmental report
ADDRESS:
Damon Arthur 
5:41 PM, Sep 17, 20157:15 PM, Sep 17, 2015MOUNT SHASTA, California - Just weeks after a group of neighbors and activists sued Crystal Geyser to force the company to do an environmental impact report on its plans to open a bottling plant near Mount Shasta, the company has agreed to do a study before opening the facility.The company was told by officials with the Siskiyou County Air Pollution Control District it would need to have a full environmental impact report to receive permits to operate boilers at the plant, said Judy Yee, vice president of marketing and business strategy for Crystal Geyser.“In an effort to be completely transparent with the community we have decided to move forward with APCD in the preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR),” the statement said.A group called We Advocate Through Environmental Review, or WATER, filed a lawsuit in August asking a judge to order the company to do an environmental report on the bottling plant.Yee said the decision to prepare a report was not related to the lawsuit.“It has absolutely no connection,” she said. An environmental report looks at issues such as traffic, water use, air pollution and noise created by the bottling plant, Yee said.The company previously said that because it is reopening a facility previously used as a bottling plant, an environmental impact report wasn’t necessary.Rosyln McCoy, a member of the group that filed the lawsuit against Crystal Geyser in Napa County Superior Court, said she was surprised the company reversed course.“I’m taking my jaw off the floor,” McCoy said. “This is really a positive step forward.”She questioned, though, whether the air pollution control district should be the lead agency on an environmental report.Donald Mooney, a lawyer who filed the lawsuit for WATER, said other legal issues remain.“I don’t think at this point that it affects the lawsuit,” Mooney said of Crystal Geyser preparing an environmental report.The lawsuit says the zoning where the bottling plant is located on Ski Village Drive allows light industrial operations, while the bottling plant will be heavy industrial. Also, the company needs to obtain a water extraction permit from Siskiyou County, the suit says.Yee said Thursday that Siskiyou County officials told the company the plant complies with all zoning requirements for the area.Crystal Geyser had planned to begin work at the site this fall, but in light of the timeline for preparing an environmental report, Yee was unable to say when the company hopes to open the plant.The company plans to initially bottle water and then later produce Metromint, a mint-flavored drink, and Juice Squeeze, a lightly carbonated fruit juice. Eventually, the company would produce Tejava, an iced tea drink.The plant, which would employ up to 60 people, would use an average of 115,000 gallons of water a day. If a second line of production is opened, water use would jump to 217,000 gallons daily, according to Crystal Geyser.There would be an average of 50 truck trips a day going to and from the plant via Mount Shasta Boulevard to Interstate 5 north of Mount Shasta, according to a fact sheet put out by Crystal Geyser.
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