CalTrout News
CalTrout Presents Mount Shasta Spring Waters Data at Crystal Geyser Meeting: 3/24/14
CalTrout presented our Mount Shasta Spring Waters Report Monday night to a packed house of over 200 concerned residents. In response to Crystal Geyser’s proposed Mount Shasta bottling facility, the City of Mount Shasta hosted a series of presentations to provide information for the community.
The city asked CalTrout to present our report as a means to help inform the community and provide decision makers with existing scientific data.
Crystal Geyser recently purchased for $5 million an existing bottling facility—once occupied by The Dannon Company, Inc. — to manufacture sparkling water, juices, and teas. The company estimates they will draw a max usage of 365,000 gallons per day of spring water from Big Springs: the headwaters of the upper Sacramento River.
Opponents of the project say that before launching operations, Crystal Geyser needs to complete an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Others, however, including Siskiyou County, say that the site is already zoned for heavy industrial use pursuant to county codes and therefore does not need further environmental review. Additionally, the City of Mount Shasta is currently working to upgrade their waste water treatment plant and sewage infrastructure to meet state regulatory standards and build capacity for the new plant.
In 2009, CalTrout published the Mount Shasta Spring Water Report, which provides information on more than 22 spring systems located around the mountain, including Big Springs: the proposed water source for the plant.
Highlights of the study include the following findings about Big Springs:
- Average discharge: 20 cubic feet per second or 12,274,000 gallons per day
- Average temperature: 7.2°C/45°F (cold non-thermal)
- Estimated age of water: > 50 years (residence time to pass through aquifer)
- Discharge elevation: 3,567 feet
- Mean recharge elevation: 8,170 feet
- Total vulnerability index rating: 6 (see report of explanation)
CalTrout will continue to provide independent third party water quality and flow monitoring data to keep our community well-informed about the health and productivity of the Big Springs aquifer.
Please visit this link to access the full Mount Shasta Spring Waters Report.
2 Comments
since when does “heavy Industrial” County zoning include and expressly imply that a property owner/user can withdraw 365,000 gallons of water a day from an underground aquifer; would someone please weigh in on what zoning or any kind implies under permitted uses ? zoning allows permitted uses often conditioned upon application and receipt of approvals for “permitted uses” but pumping a public resource from a subterranean water lake, river, stream or aquifer should not be a property right wo public moment and input on who owns the resource;
how could the County possibly say that no environmental impact report is required to pump 365,000 gallon of sub surface water a day 24-7 for how many years ? how can elected officials charged and their “staff” possibly come to that outcome. please ask other County’s general legal counsel to get involved and generate their legal opinions possibly from other counties with more legal resources so Shasta does not get intimidated into approving something which will be these politicians legacy forever.
A Declaration of Negative Impacts is on the record for the former Dannon Operation. How can we not demand current environmental quality information and process when we are talking the state capital’s namesake river? The Sacramento River is a tribute to the efforts to maintain and preserve its integrity as the most productive fishery in the state. It is historically one of the most significant fisheries, along with the Klamath River, which is also one of the top producers of all CA watersheds. The consistent, cold waters of the seeps and springs of the headwaters are a major component of the cold water fishery. Its historical salmonid and trout fisheries incited one of the states first hatcheries and research facilities on a national importance. Its reaches have beckoned fisherman from around the world and is regarded as some of the best fly-fishing in the world. John Muir and Joaquin Miller supported its esteemed character with the prescience of designating a World Cultural Fishery Site in respects to the Native American communities that stewarded its continuity. Downstream the communities of Redding and Sacramento are but a few of the interrelated areas that are touched and nourished by this unique and dynamic river ecosystem.