Published: June 22, 2009 11:59 pm      

Creek concerns: Residents question proposal to sell water

BAKERSVILLE — In an area where some streams run orange with abandoned-mine pollution, bottled-water operations would not usually rank high on a list of environmental concerns.

But a proposal to sell water from Somerset County’s Laurel Hill Creek watershed to bottling companies led more than 100 residents to pack a public meeting Monday night.

While state environmental regulators will take at about 30 days to make any decisions, it was clear how most residents felt.

“How much can we stand further development in the watershed?” asked Clair Saylor of Middlecreek Township.

A little less than a year ago, a company called Cooper Springs Trout Hatchery asked the state Department of Environmental Protection for permission to draw as much as 108,000 gallons per day from a well near Shaffer Run.

The water would be sold to unidentified bottled-water companies.

The problem is this: Shaffer Run is a tributary to Laurel Hill Creek, and the watershed is considered by many to be already oversubscribed with water demands.

In fact, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit earlier this year claimed that the watershed is one of the nation’s 10 most-endangered due to excessive water withdrawals.

That designation was lost on no one who attended the DEP meeting at Bakersville’s fire hall. Somerset lawyer Jim Courtney said his family has owned land along Laurel Hill Creek for three generations.

“How is it possible that any water at all could come out of the seventh most-endangered watershed?” Courtney said.

But Jeff Evers, a geologist hired by Cooper Springs, said the company’s testing showed no impact on Shaffer Run.

The test did impact four nearby private wells, Evers said. But the effect was termed “minor.”

He also pledged that if the project proceeds, Cooper Springs will continue to monitor water levels. And DEP officials said they would keep a close eye on those tests.

Deborah McDonald, a DEP water-supply program manager for southwestern Pennsylvania, said the Cooper Springs application has received an unusually high level of scrutiny because officials are well aware of the concerns regarding Laurel Hill Creek.

She also said any “significant problems” would allow the state to shut down the Cooper Springs operation to protect the waterway.

“It is a high-quality cold-water fishery, and we want it to stay that way,” McDonald said.

It is unlikely that such assurances fully satisfied many in the crowd.

Some residents also are worried about the impact of an estimated 14 tanker trucks that would visit the Cooper Springs site daily.

DEP is not able to address traffic concerns, which are a local issue, McDonald said.