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Nestle still sweet on Wekepeke water
By Patrick Brodrick
Wed Jul 04, 2007, 06:29 PM EDT
A company like Nestle that touts its products as “the very best” obviously has to choose the very best ingredients. And the company that is world-renown for its chocolate is hoping that water from the Wekepeke Reservoir will meet stringent requirements and become the newest addition to its line of bottled waters, which include Poland Springs and Nestle Pure Life.
On Wednesday, Nestle Northeast Natural Resource Manager Thomas Brennan told the Board of Selectmen that preliminary tests on the aquifers at the Wekepeke Reservoir, which is located in Sterling but owned by Clinton, continue to “look favorable.” Clinton used Wekepeke as a water source until the 1960s. Although the town now gets its water from the Wachusett Reservoir, it has maintained its control of the Sterling water source.
“The fact that we are continuing after a fairly extensive period of time is a good sign,” Brennan said after updating the board. “There are not a lot of sites that we have been involved with for this long, so that is a good thing.”
Joel Frisch, of Northeast Geoscience in Clinton, has been working closely with Nestle on the Wekepeke project and said there is still a lot of testing that needs to be done on the aquifer and the quality of the water. The next step in testing will be to drill larger wells and conduct more extensive pump tests to see how quickly the aquifer can replenish itself, according to Frisch.
“Right now, we are only using really small wells and we are only pumping them for a couple of hours,” Frisch said. “The idea is to put a bigger well in and pump the aquifer for a longer period of time. A lot of time, when we do these quality tests, you may find things that are questionable, and then we have to go back and test again to make sure it is an accurate reading. We have done that a number of times because we want to find out if these parameters are real — sometimes they are and sometimes they’re not.”
Test results on the water have not come back yet, Brennan said, but he does expect them soon. He said Nestle conducts stringent tests for contaminants, but the company also looks for naturally occurring chemicals, like iron, that could affect the quality of the water.
“We can’t have little orange specks floating in the bottom of our bottled water, so if we have a high concentration of iron in one area, we are going to have to shift our operation to try and find an area with no iron,” Brennan said. “Right now, we are really testing the sustainability of the system. We need to make sure we can get enough water to be able to run our business, and we also have to make sure we won’t have a harmful environmental affect on the area if we start pumping water up there.”
When Nestle first broached the idea of tapping into the Wekepeke aquifer, Brennan explained to selectmen that nine out of 10 locations are rejected for various reasons. Selectmen Vice Chairman Joseph Notaro Jr. said it’s a positive sign that at this stage of the process Nestle is still looking to move forward with more testing.
Brennan said the board should also begin thinking about initiating discussions about an economic relationship between Nestle and the town. He said he was willing to defer to the board how best to handle any negotiations of price if the water is cleared for sale by Nestle.
Selectmen, however, were cautious when it came time to discuss any future financial relationships with Nestle.
“I think what we heard was a brief update, but it seems like we are heading in the right direction,” Selectman Kevin Haley said.
Chairman Robert Pasquale Jr. said the town has to tread lightly so that it doesn’t jeopardize its relationship with the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, which gives the town free water since it commandeered a portion of the town to construct the Wachusett Reservoir. Pasquale feared that the MWRA could frown on the town selling water for profit.
“I think it’s a positive thing for the town, but we have to be cautious on the town’s behalf,” Pasquale said.
Selectman Anthony Fiorentino was pleased by what he heard from Brennan.
“There was no bad news, so that’s good news,” Fiorentino said.
(Patrick Brodrick can be reached at 978-365-8044 or at pbrodric@cnc.com.)
