Town turns down Nestle Waters offer

By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff

The town of Clinton has turned down a proposal from Nestle Waters North America Inc. that would have allowed the company to pump 240,000 gallons of water daily out of underground aquifers for bottling.

"The risk/reward trade-off wasn’t worth doing a deal like that," said Joseph Notaro, a selectman.

The water was to have been pumped from land that is owned by Clinton but which lies in the next-door town of Sterling.

The company estimated the deal would have meant up to $300,000 a year in revenue for Clinton and up to $200,000 annually for Sterling. Sterling residents opposed the deal, saying that it would have brought large trucks rumbling through town, depleted water needed for wells, and threatened local streams and brooks.

The five-member board of selectmen rejected the proposal in a unanimous vote last week.

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