Well-known businessman Trygve (Trig) Solberg now wants to build a water-bottling plant at Hwy. P and Carlin Club Drive in Presque Isle where he hopes to pipe in well water from the Carlin Club property for the operation.
Nearly 60 citizens attended the Presque Isle Zoning Committee meeting Tuesday to hear Solberg present his plans during an information-only session. Several citizens spoke against the proposal.
Solberg says the water bottling plant at Presque Isle would not violate the terms of what’s known as the Great Lakes Compact, which generally forbids moving water out of the Superior Great Lakes Basin without agreement by the partners. The size of the container is also restricted.
“The law as I understand it is if you leave it within the boundaries of the Lake Superior water basin, you can bottle it. And something smaller than 5.7 gallons. But it has to be bottled in the same basin.”
Committee chairman Dick Hemming told the audience no action would take place that night.
“We do not have an application at this point. We are not going to be doing anything until we have an application. And then all of these things that you have brought to our attention are going to be re-listened to at a public hearing and then decided upon. We will be looking for hard and fast proof."
Solberg’s attorney, John Houlihan, said the developers plan to file a rezoning application to change the property classification to Recreation from Residential-1.
