LIHU‘E — A Koloa-based company which has been bottling spring water from Kahili Mountain since 2003 may be forced to close its doors unless an appeal against the company is lifted, said Kaua‘i Springs owner Jim Satterfield. “The appeal is
LIHU‘E — A Koloa-based company which has been bottling spring water from Kahili Mountain since 2003 may be forced to close its doors unless an appeal against the company is lifted, said Kaua‘i Springs owner Jim Satterfield.
“The appeal is a cloud for investors,” he said. “We’re lost in government gridlock.”
The company has been in litigation for several years due to operating on agricultural land without seeking proper permits and potentially obtaining water from a public resource, according to court documents.
“… Industrial processing and packaging of this nature is generally not permitted in agricultural and open districts,” wrote special counsel for the county David Minken in a written statement. “Kaua‘i Springs claimed bottled water was an ‘agricultural product.’”
Most recently, however, the county Planning Commission appealed 5th Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe’s September 2008 order to issue the company a special permit, along with a use permit and zoning permit by the Planning Department, Minken said.
One of the reasons for the appeal include the Circuit Court’s failure to take into consideration the water as a public resource, he said.
The court was “hands down in our favor,” Satterfield said regarding the 2008 ruling.
The longer this appeal “sits on the shelf,” he said, the more people will lose their jobs at Kaua‘i Springs, which employees some 8 individuals.
If the appeal were lifted, the business would be able to hire 10 to 15 employees and “go forward” with producing glass bottles for export, he said.
“We are unable to execute the many great ideas to bolster the slumbering economy,” Satterfield said.
Kaua‘i Springs has also been unable to sponsor many nonprofits which “rely” on the free bottled water due to pending litigation, he said.
Since proper funding to launch the use of glass bottles and biodegradable plastics is currently unobtainable, Satterfield said, Kaua‘i Springs utilizes plastic water bottles.
Environmental organizations like the Surfrider Foundation are “waging a national campaign against” plastic bottles, said Dr. Gordon LaBedz of Surfrider’s Kaua‘i chapter.
“Plastic never biodegrades and all the plastic that has been ever produced is still on the planet,” he said.
Some cities have even banned the use of single-use plastic water bottles like San Francisco and Seattle, according to online sources.
“Even if they were to use glass bottles, water mining — for a small island like ours — is not a good idea,” LaBedz said. “… usually these little companies are bought by big monopolies. In other communities, they have dried up ground water for their profits …”
Several companies have approached Kaua‘i Springs “to buy out its stock,” Satterfield wrote in an e-mail. However, the “family-owned business is stuck.”
“We cannot sell the company with the appeal attached,” he said.
Companies like Whole Foods are interested in carrying the product on its shelves but the company is stymied, Satterfield said.
“Our county is supposed to be eco-friendly and self-sustainable,” he said, noting the need for his company to be able to locally bottle the island’s “only spring water” resource. “Shipping in hundreds of thousands of little bottles from all over the world” is not “ecologically smart.”
And it isn’t as healthy either, said licensed acupuncturist Bard Widmer. The natural minerals found in spring water are required for maintaining one’s health, he said.
“I’m really taken by what (Satterfield) has going on and the importance of spring water being resourced for the island,” Widmer said. “If it weren’t for him, it wouldn’t be there.”
Historically, the Kahili Mountain spring water was used to irrigate the Koloa ahupua‘a and currently services 50 to 60 customers, including Kaua‘i Springs, Minken said.
Faced with “no other alternative,” Kaua‘i Springs filed a lawsuit against the county “to regain their losses,” Satterfield said.
Kaua‘i Springs is alleging that the county violated its civil rights and is “seeking unspecified damages … despite the fact that Kaua‘i Springs’ operations were never shut down,” Minken said.
The revenues derived by a small business like Kaua‘i Springs are essential for the island’s economy, Satterfield said.
“This is not good in a bad economy,” said Satterfield, who had to lay off employees last month.
Since 1966, the county placed everyone on a municipal water system and the spring “sat abandoned … just water going into the ocean,” he said. “The island of Kaua‘i might soon lose its only source of spring water in an environment that needs every drop.”
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
