CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. -- Nestle may be famous for chocolate, but the company is eying the Columbia River Gorge for it's water.
Nestle, the city of Cascade Locks and the state of Oregon are working on a plan to build a spring water bottling plant in the Gorge.
The water would come from a natural spring that has fed the Oxbow Salmon hatchery since the 1930s.
"When you have industrial land and spring water, that's very attractive to a company like Nestle because those two things are hard to come by in America," said Cascade Locks City Manager Bernard Seeger.
Nestle would spend $50 million building a plant at a gravel pit. Water would supply the plant from the spring above the hatchery; in return, the hatchery would get well water from the city of Cascade Locks.
"This could actually be very beneficial to the hatchery," said Hatchery manager Duane Banks.
Under the plan the hatchery would receive extra water so it could expand and raise more salmon.
Nearby hatcheries already operate on well water, but to make sure Cascade Locks' water is safe, the state will raise fish in it for one year.
"If we can get a water rights exchange with the state and the fish survive 12 months, then we think we have the conditions for Nestle to make a decision," said Seeger.
Opposition groups are already fighting the project over pollution concerns. Plastic bottles fill local landfills, according to Food and Water Watch, which launched a petition drive to stop the plant.
"We don't want to be steamrolled over by a big company," said Katelin Stuart, a concerned Cascade Locks resident who doesn't feel the public is getting enough information about the planned project. She's not for or against the project, but simply wants all the facts.
The city of Cascade Locks could vote on the plan in about a year. It's a plan that could more than double the tax base in a former timber town struggling to survive and reinvent itself.
The plan is controversial move because it's all happening in the heart of a treasured national scenic area.
Nestle has 26 spring-fed bottling plants but none in the Northwest. Recent attempts to build plants in several small towns near Tacoma failed.
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