A bottled water company says it no longer plans to purchase water belonging to the Montgomery County Village of St. Johnsville.
Since July 2019, BlueTriton Brands has had an agreement with the Village of St. Johnsville to study water in the village’s Congdon Springs water supply.
In exchange for regular payments to the village, the company monitored test wells at the site. BlueTriton had noted the village uses only 33 percent of its water capacity and that it was seeking to purchase up to 3 percent of the village’s water.
But over the years, concern grew among local residents, including Jordan McDaniel, co-founder of the group Green Samaritans of St. Johnsville. He voiced some of his worries about a potential sale of large volumes of water with WAMC last year.
“I’m a trout fisherman and I value my trout, and there ain’t nothing like going in the woods and doing a little trout fishing and finding yourself. And if trout now can’t exist because the water is being compromised, these are all the situations we’re looking at,” said McDaniel.
In August, the village board passed a resolution that says if the company makes a formal proposal to purchase village water, it would need to complete a state environmental review form and present findings to the village board for review.
Fast forward a few months, and the question of whether the company would submit a purchase proposal drove village politics, including the election of incoming Mayor Dawn White last week, a BlueTriton opponent.
In a letter sent to village officials dated March 10th, an engineer working for BlueTriton Brands says the company “generated a significant volume of information and data” on the springs in the nearby Fulton County Town of Ephratah.
The letter continues, saying BlueTriton Brands will not seek further renewal of the 2019 agreement and that will suspend it investigations.
In an email, a spokesperson from BlueTriton confirmed to WAMC Thursday that it “does not anticipate it will move forward with a proposal to purchase water at this time.”
Art Dockerty is the village’s outgoing acting mayor.
“I think it all just goes back to what they want to do. They don't want to be involved anymore. So, they're getting out,” said Dockerty.
BlueTriton says it will provide its survey data on the primary water supply to the village. Dockerty, who was re-elected as village trustee, said the community debate in the small village did have a silver lining.
“I'm glad that the community has gotten involved. Because when I first took over, we had one, maybe nobody at our board meetings,” said Dockerty.
Mayor-elect White said she doesn’t know why the letter was not discussed at the last village board meeting on March 20th.
“There was a board meeting in March after March 10th. And this was not mentioned at any of the board meetings,” said White.
Dockerty explained…
“It was put into the board packets. But we got it at such a late date that it just didn't fit into what we had to do at our meeting that night,” said Dockerty.
Dockerty is ready to move on.
“You know, we have good people in our departments. I have a great clerk in Jayna Cool. She keeps me in line. She gives me any information I need and you know, everybody works together here. So, we have we have we have great departments, we're just digging ourselves out from where we have been in trying to improve village and that's what it's all about. It's all about the village,” said Dockerty.
White anticipates meeting with BlueTriton’s engineers about the removal of well equipment on April 5th.
“I'm looking forward to them confirming to me that they no longer have any interest in further exploring the purchase of our water,” said White.
