Bottling Plan Pushes Groundwater to Center Stage in Vermont

Hundreds of gallons of groundwater flow to the surface in rivulets here each hour, helping to create this town’s signature spring, a lush current typical of northern New England. Just uphill, a meadow stretches to the doorstep of Daniel Antonovich, a businessman with plans to bottle and sell about 250,000 gallons a day from the spring.

The idea makes his neighbors nervous. Like two-thirds of Vermonters and 40 percent of all New Englanders, most residents of East Montpelier depend on wells for their water. Some worry that a water-bottling operation will compromise their ability to shower and flush; others just do not want their local water sold elsewhere.

In corners of Vermont, once-reliable well-water supplies have become intermittent in recent years, with homeowners blaming local developers or mining operations or a bottling operation. In March, the town of East Montpelier postponed any bottling for three years. Three months later, in a move that put Vermont in the company of a growing number of states, the legislature approved a measure making the state’s groundwater a public trust. Beginning in 2010, anyone seeking to pump more than 57,600 gallons a day will need a permit, with exceptions for farms, water utilities, fire districts and some geothermal systems.

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