Talking points and strategies from Jay Hake

Greetings New Friends and Neighbors,

Thanks to each of you for attending last night’s meeting and thank you for your willingness to be involved in this important issue for Chaffee County. As we discussed last night, this project is moving very fast and we need to respond quickly in order to make our voices heard. While there are many ways to get involved, I believe the most important thing anyone can do right now is to get involved in the public hearings with the County Commissioners. Remember, that meeting takes place on March 18th, starting at 1PM at the Steam Plant (NOTE: Apparently this meeting is being moved to the end of the month, but we still need to respond NOW). You can get a great deal of information on this project at: http://www.chaffeecounty.org/Page.aspx?PageID=4056 . With that, here are some suggestions about how to get involved:

1. Show Up! Even if you don't feel comfortable testifying, please show up to the meeting. Ask your friends, neighbors, and relatives in the area to show up. Let's fill the room. We really need to show the County Commissioners that citizens in Chaffee County are paying attention to this issue and that they care deeply about the outcome. This is an essential part 1.

2. Let your voice be heard. Commit to either writing a letter to the Commissioners or giving public comment at the meeting. As one of our attendees last night rightly stated, the only time the Commissioners HAVE to pay attention to what you say is during the public comment period. So, please come and speak. It is a small commitment to make in relation to the potential impact this project will have on the County (more tips on this below). Also, if you can, please bring a written copy of your key points to the hearing and leave them with the Commission.

3. If you cannot attend and speak, please write a letter to your county commissioners stating your position and your concerns. Also, the County staff has prepared what are called Application Review Memoranda for this project. The County has also received reports from their own consultants regarding this project. Although this information is public, none of it has been posted on the website along with Nestle's materials. Ask them to publish this information on the web as well.

Address your letter to the Chaffee County Commissioners (please address them as Commissioner______): Mr. Frank Holman, Mr. Dennis Giese, and Mr. Tim Glenn at the following address:

P.O. Box 699
104 Crestone Avenue
Salida, CO 81201


4. Contact the Aurora City Council, or spread the word to any friends or family you have in Aurora. The Aurora City Council is voting on the approval of the Nestle water lease on March 23 during their regular session. Aurora Water confirmed for me today the following details about the lease. It is a 10 year lease for 200 Acre Feet of water. The lease has a renewal option for another 10 years. The source of the water is Arkansas and Colorado River water already owned by Aurora that is considered surplus capacity. Aurora has the right to stop sending water to Nestle during a Stage III drought only. Aurora defines Stage III drought as when their reservoir storage is down to 60% of its full capacity. In other words, they can only stop selling water to Nestle during "Severely Dry" periods. So, residents will be on water restrictions in Aurora long before they can stop delivering water to Nestle under this agreement. You can find Aurora's Water Management Plan at: http://www.auroragov.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/article-publication/014178.pdf.

The Aurora City Council can be reached at:

15151 E. Alameda Parkway
Fifth Floor
Aurora, CO 80012
(303) 739-7015

The Members of the Council are (please address them as Councilman or Councilwoman):

Mayor Ed Tauer
Ms. Deborah Wallace
Ms. Renie Terson
Mr. Larry Beer
Ms. Molly Markert
Ms. Sue Sandstrom
Mr. Bob Broom
Mr. Bob FitzGerald
Mr. Ryan Frazier
Mr. Steve Hogan
Mr. Brad Pierce

5. Write letters to the Mountain Mail, Salida Citizen, and the Denver/Aurora Papers.

6. Tips for writing/testifying. The goal of your testimony should be to directly address the 1041 Application, as well as provide your opinions and concerns as residents of the county. Tell the commissioners why you are there, what your concerns are, and why you have those opinions. For some brief background, consider the following purposes Chaffee County has outlined for the 1041 application process. These are not specific to Nestle, these are straight from the County's 1041 application regulations, which can be found here: http://gigshowcase.com/EndUserFiles/299.pdf

In other words, ANY 1041 application should be guided by these principals:

(a) To promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of Chaffee County;

(b) To encourage and strengthen the established industries of agriculture, mining, tourism, recreation and education;

(c) To plan for adequate transportation, water, wastewater treatment, electricity, telephone, schools, parks and other similar facilities, and to provide for the phased development of such services and facilities;

(d) To protect the beauty of the landscape and the rural character of the County, to enhance recreational opportunities for residents and visitors, to preserve important archeological and historic sites and significant wildlife habitat, to protect air and water quality, and to conserve soil, water and forestry resources;

(e) To protect and enhance the economic strength of the private and governmental sectors of the County;

(f) To regulate development projects that would otherwise cause excessive noise, water, and/or air pollution, or which would otherwise degrade or threaten the existing environmental quality within the County; and

(g) To ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that growth will pay for itself, and to ensure that the present residents do not have to subsidize new growth and development through
increased taxes and/or degradation of their existing quality of life.

Pay particular attention to letters a, b, d, e, and f

Additional points to consider are:
1. the broader questions of whether we should support the privatization of a vital natural resource by for-profit companies

2. the potential traffic impacts caused by 50 truck trips per day coming to the facility

3. the lack of commitment on Nestle's part to fully commit to specific deliverables and efforts to restore the hatchery, to provide for public access to the land, to grant a conservation easement on the property. Remember, Nestle states on their website the following benefits:

"Dear Bruce,
 I was wondering what Job opportunities this might create here in the Area, as we who live here know the Jobs are very hard. ---VP
Dear VP: 
The primary benefits of our proposed project to Chaffee County residents are the protection of open space and natural resources, the complete restoration of the existing hatchery to its natural environment, Nestle sponsorship of area programs and annual tax revenue to Chaffee County.
If approved, project construction will generate local jobs for several months with an estimated payroll of $1.9 million. The completed facilities will be unmanned so any other potential job opportunities exist with the maintenance (plumbing/electrical/snow-plowing) of the load station facility and possibly some truck drivers.
I appreciate your interest and hope that I have answered your question.
Regards, Bruce"

Please note that based on my reading of the project there are no firm commitments to provide ANY of these benefits. When does Nestle plan to make these commitments
Please see http://www.nestlewatersco.com/chaffeecty/index.php?p=bruce_updates for more information.

This is probably too much information at one time, but I hope you all find it helpful. Thank you again for time and efforts.

Sincerely,
Jay Hake