University of Hartford students are stepping up to support residents of the Bloomfield and West Hartford communities who have been in a battle with town council leaders after the sudden announcement of a possible new water bottling facility to be built in Bloomfield.
The Hartford Courant released an article mid-December last year about negotiations between Bloomfield town council leaders and Niagara Bottling. The California-based company proposed to build a $73-million 443,000-square-foot bottling facility on Woodland Avenue.
Most of the outrage sparked was because this came as a surprise as residents felt that they were left out of the loop.
Negotiations between Bloomfield officials and Niagara actually began two years ago, but the deal fell through. Niagara searched for possible locations in upstate New York but those negotiations too fell through. The company then returned back to Bloomfield where negotiations were re-engaged and continued forward without much public knowledge.
Enraged residents began attending town council meetings to voice their concerns, and even started the “Bloomfield Citizens” and “West Hartford Concerned Citizens” groups to garner support on social media. They also started several petitions, with one of them collecting over 1,200 signatures to oppose the Niagara Bottling facility.
Water wars have come to Bloomfield. Citizens are not going away Blmfd Mayor Gamble! pic.twitter.com/Nod9wJ3EJQ
— Bloomfield Citizens (@BlmfldCitizens) February 19, 2016
To mirror their efforts, University of Hartford students Mike Fiordalisi and Colleen MacInnis began a petition on Feb. 24 in an effort to oppose the water bottling facility. As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition has over 450 signatures. (UPDATE 3/3: It now has over 590 signatures)
Fiordalisi also sent a mass email on the morning of March 2 to all University of Hartford students to urge them to support their “Hartford Protects” campaign. In the email, he referenced the University of Hartford’s values of being “committed to community.”
“The University of Hartford stands behind the mantra ‘committed to community.’ So, let’s as a student body, show our support for our community and environment we all call home and consider signing and supporting our campaign!”
Fiordalisi first found out about this issue in his “Studies in Social Problems” class taught by professor Renwick Griswold, and found the secrecy of the deal to be outrageous.
“I encourage everyone to sign this petition in order for the petition to work to its full effectiveness when presented in front of state legislation next Friday afternoon,” Fiordalisi told The Informer. “With enough signatures, this could really make an impact in protecting our community. The existence of Niagara Bottling in Bloomfield would be a virus in the heart of our community.”
Sophomore Audrey Vogel signed the petition and saw that it was a great opportunity for UHart students to get involved.
“We’re the generation that has the highest chance of creating change,” Vogel said, who shared the petition on Facebook. “It sounds corny, but we are the future.”
Although the petition mentions the Park/Hog River that runs through the University of Hartford campus, it would actually remain unaffected by the new facility. The river water comes from the North Branch Park River watershed, while Niagara will get their water from the Barkhamsted and Nepaug reservoirs which comes from the Farmington River watershed.
#Bloomfield town council chambers full of opponents to Niagara bottling plant. pic.twitter.com/guhCXp7xof
— steven goode (@townnewsguy) February 23, 2016
One of the major issues with the Niagara facility is the environmental impact it will have on the community.
The Metropolitan District (MDC) is a municipal corporation in charge or providing potable water and sewerage services to eight municipalities including Bloomfield, West Hartford and Hartford. The agreement with Niagara Bottling allows the plant to use up to 1.8 million gallons of water a day.
The facility will sit on a 42-acre property with one bottling line that could eventually expand to four. Each bottling line would be capable of using up to 450,000 gallons of water a day. Currently, the largest MDC costumer is the Hartford Hospital, which uses about 450,000 gallons a day.
In recent years, the average daily water usage has been no more than 49 million gallons. The MDC has a 77 million gallon limit of daily use that they say customers could use without depleting the supply. The Barkhamsted and Nepaug reservoirs can contain about 40 billion gallons of water and recently the MDC said that it is 88 percent full.
It also brings up the issue of added environmental pollution from the production of millions of plastic bottles and the use of vehicles to transport them. However, Bloomfield town officials refuted this by saying that stopping Niagara from building the plant here wouldn’t solve that problem. They would just go to some other town and still produce that same amount of pollution.
However, the deal to bring Niagara Bottling to Bloomfield has been signed and is all but done. The land property has been purchased and the building permits have been paid. The town council could go back on their agreement, but they would be sued for breach of contract.
It’s only up to Niagara if they want to change their mind, but Hartford Courant reporter Steven Goode, who has been following this ordeal, doesn’t think that would happen after having already spent all that money.
“It looks like there is going to be a bottling plant in Bloomfield,” he said in an email.
To sign the University of Hartford petition, go to the PetitionBuzz website and search for “Say No To Niagara.”