Throughout the last year, Save Our Groundwater committee members have periodically met to discuss the future of our organization and carried this information back to our members at monthly meetings.

None of us doubt the need to go on but how we do that may change and we hope that you, our members and our supporters, will weigh in with you ideas and suggestions to guide the board of directors and committee members. In this special edition, we have compiled the story of our work to protect water.

We have come to know a lot about water in the six years since Save Our Groundwater began. For starters, we all learned more about the watershed that we live in – the place that water travels across, under and through to move to larger bodies of water like our lakes and rivers. We learned about how we are connected, like the veins and arteries in our bodies, to other communities by water.

We learned more about the aquifer that we depend on for drinking water with its bedrock fissures and secret, subterranean places that catch and store water, some of it ancient. We have come to know more than we ever thought we could understand about aquifer contamination and hazardous wastes being drawn into our aquifer. We have learned how water flows merrily in times of bounty and contracts and goes deeper in times of drought. Water can be gentle and meandering. Water can be fierce and flooding.

If we take our lessons from water and learn them well, we know that when water encounters obstacles it does not stop but it goes around them. Sometimes that action continues to wear away against stone, in a process that may take centuries. Sometimes water abandons its path and carves a new one. In either case, the water never stops flowing.

SOG in its sixth year is a lot like water up against a boulder of an unholy alliance between the state and USA Springs, Inc. We all know the story: the company’s state-required 2002 pump test drew contaminants from an adjacent site called volatile organic compounds – a carcinogen – into the aquifer, creating a hazardous waste site that state officials estimated would cost more than 1 million dollars to clean up. Municipalities were sent official letters from the Department of Environmental Services (DES) and private well owners were notified. DES denied the company’s permits and then denied their appeal. The company refused to do anything about cleaning up the mess from the pump test unless they received the permits they needed (as documented in DES records). The Attorney General’s office got involved in the negotiations. And, one new governor (Craig Benson) and one new DES Commissioner (Michael Nolin) later, the permits started flowing and the site was cleaned up. The state was happy, the company jubilant and the residents and surrounding municipalities were shunted off to the side by a dam of indifference.

We have pushed hard against this boulder – documenting our concerns and taking them to administrative appeals, the local superior court, even the New Hampshire Supreme Court. And even as we have never let up pressing against the big rock, we continued to send our energy out into communities, sharing our story and strategies, helping to transform the laws, and discovering a renewed sense of community through the work we undertook.

We are still waiting for the time when water will pour down in great cascades and wash away injustice and refresh and nurture our homelands parched from years of bureaucratic double-speak and more red tape than could possibly fit into the 112 million plastic gallon bottles of our water that will be placed on trucks and then shipped to other countries on an annual basis. We the water keepers will continue to press on.

Yet as we look to the future, and how to best use our volunteer energies, we find the analogy of water seeking a new path to be welcoming. Save Our Groundwater does so many things well, and other communities look to us to help them in their water struggles. We have information and expertise to share, we know how to produce terrific educational forums, and we continue to work to improve our state’s water laws in partnership with our local legislators and state government. Why should we focus all our energy on one implacable rock?

One of the outstanding attributes of water is that it is not afraid to change and shift course. We are not either. We’ve only just begun…

Looking Back And Taking Stock – Important Events & Dates

Key
SOG = Save Our Groundwater
DES = NH Dept. of Environmental Services
N-ZBA = Nottingham Zoning Board of Adjustment
NPB = Nottingham Planning Board
DOT = NH Dept. of Transportation
DES WET = DES Wetlands Bureau
BCC = Barrington Conservation Commission

2001
4/14/01 – Before SOG: Garrison Place Real Estate Investment Trust submits a variance application to the Nottingham ZBA for USA Springs, Inc.’s water bottling project.
4/24/01 – Before SOG: USA Springs, Inc. submits site plan application to the NPB.
5/1/01 – Before SOG: Nottingham-ZBA grants company special exception use from residential zone to industrial.
7/24/01 & 7/31/01 – Citizens Rise Up: DES holds Nottingham & Barrington public Q & A re: the USA Springs, Inc. proposal following project protests by town officials and state legislators.
8/16/01 – SOG is organized by residents following DES hearings and holds the first of continued monthly meetings to protect water in the public trust. More than 75 people attend the first meeting.
8/23/01 – SOG hold first press conference concerning groundwater resources and the public trust doctrine at the Newhall Farm, Barrington, NH. Pat Newhall, a USA Springs, Inc. abutter, hosts SOG’s first Press Conference and talks with reporter Roger Wood.
8/30/01 – SOG holds first of several public rallies at the Lee traffic circle with 35-40 supporters amidst honks and “thumbs up” from the busy Friday traffic. Marika Wilde, Rolph Voltaire and “water drop”, Denise Hart, wave and smile at passing drivers at the Lee Traffic Circle. The famous “Water Derrick” at Antonio’s Restaurant with Signs “No, Don’t Sell Our Water” at the Lee Traffic Circle Rally

2002
Parents and children at 6/6/02 NPB rally.
2/6/02 – SOG members testify at legislative hearing in Concord about Senate Bill 410.
9/6/02 – Nottingham Board of Selectmen seeks, unsuccessfully, an injunction in Rockingham Superior Court to stop the USA Springs, Inc.’s pump test.
9/25/02 – SOG members attend NPB as it rejects the USA Springs site plan review as incomplete.
11/14/02 – DES issues temporary discharge permits to USA Springs, Inc.’s allowing the pump test on site to proceed.
11/20/02 – SOG members begin the 10-day “Protest the Pump Test” site rally. Support for SOG’s protest is evidenced by the many “thumbs up” and honks.
A young environmentalist with Gov. Jeanne Shaheen at the Madbury reservoir 3/02 rally.
12/18/02 – Attorney for USA Springs, Inc., Garrison Place REIT, Francesco Rotondo, Trustee, sends “Notice To Take Deposition” via the Rockingham County Superior Court to subpoena SOG activists and all emails re: USA Springs, any NH state agencies, and Town of Nottingham officials.

What Happened In Our Towns Should Not Happen Anywhere Ever Again!!

In May 2001 residents in Barrington and Nottingham began to learn that a company, USA Springs, Inc., had purchased 100 acres of land in Barrington and Nottingham to build a water bottling plant off Rte. 4 and withdraw approximately 439,000 gallons of water every day from the deep bedrock aquifer to bottle and ship overseas.

Some residents became alarmed over the proposal and began investigating. Residents from both towns formed a grassroots organization, Save Our Groundwater (SOG) to investigate the “who, what, when, where and how” of this proposal. They discovered the people heading this company had already illegally violated some of Barrington’s wetlands with no permit! Over the past 5 ½ years that SOG has been dealing with the State and USA Springs, Inc., thousands of NH residents have registered their opposition to this proposal.

There are 3 main rivers, the Oyster, the Bellamy, and the Lamprey, with headwaters located in the area which supply water to the area wetlands and wells including many Seacoast communities from Northwood to Portsmouth.

Two groups of residents, SOG and the Neighborhood Guardians, (a group of concerned citizens formed in 2004 with a focus on the Nottingham permitting process), have ultimately come up against a stone wall in trying to deal with state agencies (DES, DOT, and the Water Council), even though these agencies are paid by the taxpayers to protect our resources and help our citizens. We have thus far been denied “standing” – as duly registered citizen organizations as allowed by law.

The devastation that might be caused by this proposal is unthinkable! Almost everyone in our towns is dependent on wells for water. Water is life. When a deep bedrock aquifer is tapped, it does not recharge as readily as the sand and gravel type. Contaminants may be mobilized and drawn into the aquifer, as was proved by the company’s 2002 pump test.

There is no guarantee this would not happen again! Our state agencies are charged with making sure that businesses not only follow all the rules and laws, but also are not detrimental to the citizens and environment! Towns should have the right to decide if a proposed business is beneficial.

Are New Hampshire’s Existing Groundwater Laws Enough?

Some have said that because New Hampshire is one of the few states that actually has a Groundwater Protection Act (RSA 485-C, 1993) that it’s enough. While SOG applauds the forward thinking of our legislatures in the early ‘90s, the law was written to cover water withdrawals regarding municipalities. At that time, private companies pumping and bottling water and transferring it out of state for huge profits were not in the picture.

As we learned more about our groundwater supply and the bedrock aquifer where our water traveled in uncharted nooks and fissures, we realized that it was important that we work in a non-partisan way with our local and state legislators to begin to:

1. Find ways to incorporate towns, cities and local citizens as important partners in making decisions about large groundwater withdrawals.
   
2. Get a better understanding of just how much potable water we have in the State of New Hampshire.
   
3. Think about and implement sustainable ways of managing and protecting our water resources for future generations.
   
4. Change the large groundwater permitting process to better equalize the needs and interests of businesses with the needs and interest of communities.
   
5. Understand the full impact of international trade agreements on local and state authority when dealing with bottled water that is exported.
   
   

What have we learned? We have learned that drinking water and groundwater have become the “oil of the 21st century” and that it required our entire community of large and small businesses, town and state officials, farmers, recreational facility owners, educators, and citizens to work together to establish policies and practices that will benefit us, and the environment for generations. It is not an easy task, but one that we cannot avoid doing – too much depends on it.

Over the years, many SOG members have actively engaged in legislative hearings by providing written and oral testimony, speaking one-on-one with state and local officials, and working with legislators on the wording and concepts of several water bills. We have also taken note that in recent years there are many more lobbyists representing the water industry at the State House.

Listed below are just a few of the important bills and initiatives that SOG has worked to support. Whether they passed, went on to a study commission, or were ruled inexpedient to legislate, they all are an important part of the ongoing larger conversation about our valuable water resources.

2001-2002: Senate Bill 410 was designed to tighten the rules governing large commercial withdrawals of groundwater and to give communities a vehicle to provide input on proposed withdrawals. Passed/adopted with amendment.

2002-2003: Senate Bill 155 established a commission to study ways to clarify the hierarchy of water users while considering existing private property rights, to establish a balanced approach to groundwater use among residential, public water supply, industrial, commercial, agricultural, recreational and other water users and environment interests. Conference Reported Adopted and Signed by Governor Lynch – in process.

2004-2005: Save Our Groundwater submitted an amendment to House Bill 69 which we believe would create transparency when it comes to new requests from applicants for large groundwater withdrawals. We believed that the existing approval process is convoluted and needs clarity, especially groundwater withdrawals from contaminated, confined bedrock aquifers. Passed/adopted with amendment.

2005-2006: House Bill 1609-FN requires the Department of Environmental Services to require an applicant to conduct an impact study to determine the effects of a proposed large groundwater withdrawal on public water supply needs before the department may issue a permit for the withdrawal. Passed/adopted with amendment.

To learn more about pending legislation and study commissions, please visit http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us

SOG members present petitions at the statehouse in Concord.