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Opponents of Perrier turn eyes to Texas
By JAMES THORNER © St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 1998 The case, heard before the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, seeks to stop a Perrier subsidiary called Ozarka Spring Water from pumping landowners' wells dry in the Texas outback. Although a court decision is probably several months away, activists insist that the Texas case could give them impetus to stop Perrier in Florida. Zephyrhills Spring Water Co., a branch of Perrier, is applying to the state to tap up to 2.6-million gallons of water a day from Crystal Springs. The state now lets the company draw up to 301,000 gallons a day. "Perrier is like a 5-year-old child running wild," said Pam Rea, an attorney representing two Texas landowners who are suing Perrier. "If we can just spank it, maybe it will behave." Members of the group Save Our Springs, formed to spoil Perrier's plans to pump more water from Crystal Springs, admit the Texas case dwarfs their troubles locally. Ozarka is accused of draining several landowners' wells by boring excessively into the Texas aquifer. In Florida, Perrier is piping water already bubbling to the surface from the aquifer to its Zephyrhills bottling plant. "The water loss here is nothing compared to Texas," said Terry Wolfe, head of Save Our Springs. "They're literally drying up." But Wolfe said the Texas case is indicative of Perrier's corporate attitude: That communities are expendable in the name of profit. She fears the company will deplete Crystal Springs, thereby depriving the Hillsborough River of water. The river supplies much of Tampa's water. The application process to allow Perrier to take more water is creeping toward a conclusion. Crystal Springs owner Robert Thomas has until Dec. 14 to provide answers to questions from the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Most of the questions deal with the environmental effects of siphoning more spring water. Swiftmud will have 30 days to either close the file or request more information from Thomas and Perrier. Once the agency is satisfied, it will rule on the water request, a process that could take at least another 90 days. "I'm holding my breath. I've done all I can do," Wolfe said. "If they rule for Perrier, I'm not just going to sit back and let it happen."
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RYSTAL SPRINGS -- Activists opposed to Perrier's plans to tap millions more gallons of water from Crystal Springs in east Pasco are drawing encouragement from a lawsuit challenging Perrier's bottling operations in Texas.
