Posted on 11/22/2007 6:02:45 PM PST by Coleus
Charlie Fisher guided the copper pole into the still pond and poked around. Within seconds, a steady stream of bubbles began to rise, showing signs of life from the spring below. "This is ready to be something special," said Fisher. "It's going to be a great resource."
The spring, which on Tuesday afternoon had a healthy coating of a mosslike substance and was clogged with fallen leaves in various autumnal hues, and another just like it on the 43-acre Hunterdon County farm are probably Fisher's last chance to preserve the land. His hope: Going into the bottled water business.
Fisher is seeking a use variance to install a water-harvesting facility on the farm, which would be the first step to what would eventually lead to locally bottled water. His plan calls for harvesting up to 43,200 gallons per day, or 30 gallons per minute from the springs. According to documents supplied to the Delaware Township board of adjustments, the springs are in a small drainage basin that is a tributary to Wickecheoke Creek.
"I think I'm doing a noble thing," said Fisher. "It's either this or have the property developed with five McMansions on it." Up until about 10 years ago, the property housed a dairy farm with about 100 milk cows and 50 others. If approved by the township, Fisher would build new stainless steel silos to store the water and upgrade the harvesting and filtration system. The system, which would include micro-filtration and ultraviolet lighting for purification, means the water would be ready for bottling by the time it reached the silos, though the actual bottling would take place off site.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
You just know someone will sue him over some imaginary cow poo in their water.
One could say this is a real pipe dream? Does he not have any ideal how large a stream of water that is and what pressure it would need to flow 30 gal per minute.
If Charlie sniffs the end of that pipe, he’d likely discover methane from the rotting of sunken vegetation—not a spring!
Maybe just having the equipment installed is enough. There may not be any requirement to actually produce bottled water, just a legal intent to do so.
Good luck, Charley!
In a perfect world, water is clean, clear, free of chemicals and loaded with minerals. To achieve a super clean water supply when you are on a spring water system, your best bet is to add a sanitation system. This bypasses the challenges of manufacturing an oil-based plastic product that often ends up tasting no better than the water you drink and takes three times more water to produce it than to actually drink it.
I clicked on both the starledger and the nj.com and it came up as “gone” or something?
My wife knew a Charlie Fisher in Hunterdon County. Does make me wonder, with the description of the scummy pond - I doubt that is from a spring at 30 gpm.
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