A crowd of about 170 citizens crammed the Presque Isle Community Center Wednesday for a hearing on a rezoning request designed to pave the way for a water-bottling plant near Highways B and W in Presque Isle.
After the public hearing was over, the zoning committee voted unanimously to recommend to the town board that it deny the rezoning request.
The property is owned by Richard De Groot, who has a purchase offer from Carlin Water Company for an 11-acre parcel of the total 15 acres requested for rezoning. Minocqua attorney John Houlihan represents De Groot as well as the project’s developers, Trig Solberg and Steve Kosnick. Houlihan said the location complies with the town’s comprehensive land use development plan.
“By the rezoning of this property we’re fitting it in exactly where the town of Presque Isle intended such a business to be located,” he said.
However, their plan to use water from the Carlin Club well to fill those bottles has drawn widespread opposition. The town clerk received 200 letters on the rezoning request– all in opposition. Other town officials also received a number of letters, again, all but one in opposition. About 15 people spoke at the hearing to denounce the project. Their concerns centered on their belief that the bottled water plant would reduce the ground water table, leaving residents’ own drinking wells dry, along with a reduction in the Carlin Lake aquifer itself, and the erosion of the community’s image as “The Last Wilderness.”
William Vinall of Presque Isle outlined his fears that the developers could extract upwards of 100,000 gallons of water per day “from our water resource.”
Jim Luedtke, of the project, said later that the bottling operation would use 18,000 gallons in a 24-hour period. Vinall warned that granting the rezoning would open the town to perhaps other undesirable usages. “We are known as ‘The Last Wilderness’ and it is my belief that the majority of our community has justifiable pride in that term and for the mental image what it conveys.”
Also voicing opposition was Ramona Kubica, vice president of the Carlin Lake Association. On behalf of the association, she questioned whether using well water from the Carlin Club for a commercial endeavor such as this would jeopardize their legal nonconforming use as a resort, restaurant and bar within a R-1 Zoning District. Winchester resident Darryl Gust noted that if the bottled water plant caused nearby residential wells to go dry, the town as well as the developers could face lawsuits.
Ken Wiesner of Land O Lakes, a registered professional engineer, said people should investigate more closely how this operation might affect the groundwater.
