By Rebecca Martin
Last month, we received a call from a resident who learned that the Town of Ulster was facilitating discussions with a water bottling plant poking around Enterprise Drive and Boices Lane.
A decade ago, the proposed Niagara Bottling project abandoned its controversial plan to build a plant near TechCity that would have drawn water from the city of Kingston’s reservoir after a five month long coalition effort led by KingstonCitizens.org. “Any impact that we might have made is a reflection of strong resolve, partnerships, commitment, patience and perseverance by us all. It is a great illustration of Democracy at work in the Hudson Valley.” we were quoted saying back then. KingstonCitizens.org went on to change the water powers law with a referendum to protect the Kingston community in November of 2015. The coalition of partners included The Woodstock Land Conservancy, Riverkeeper, Esopus Creek Conservancy, Food and Water Watch, SaveCooperLake.org, Catskill Mountainkeeper, NYPIRG, The Wittenberg Center, Mid-Hudson Sierra Club, Red Hook Conservation Advisory Council, Clark Richters and Kingston News, SUNY Ulster Environmental Club, Scenic Hudson, Sustainable Saugerties, Slow Food Hudson Valley, Town of Woodstock, Town of Red Hook, City of Kingston Common Council and Conservation Advisory Council and Kingston and Woodstock NY Transition.
Recently, with the support of our sister group the TownOfUlsterCitizens.org, a FOIL request was submitted to learn as much as we could about a proposed water bottling plant in 2024 before alerting City of Kingston officials and our independent water board. What we learned was that although some water tests were requested by the unknown company, according to Supervisor James Quigley, the project was thought to be “dead”.
In 2014 and 2015, the City of Kingston residents unambiguously told our local, county and state officials that we don’t want our municipal drinking water to be bottled and sold. Also, it is even clearer today that current climate conditions (such as recurring and more severe droughts) and the unrelenting growth of the bottled water industry are masking our current water crisis and hindering efforts to provide reliable drinking water for all.
We remain vigilant.
RESOURCES:
WATCH: August 14, 2024: Kingston Water Board discusses, briefly, KingstonCitizens.org’s outreach and Supervisor James Quigley’s FOIL response letter. “Water tests were requested, but no application was submitted. It was a non-starter at this time.”
READ: KingstonCitizens.org letter to the Kingston Water Board re: a Potential Water Bottling Plant/Facility in the Town of Ulster in 2024
READ: Supervisor James Quigley’s FOIL letter response
Nicely posted! Thanks for keeping us informed!