Bottled water plant gets OK from Fulton County planners

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lamendola

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CG Roxane’s proposed water-bottling plant has received a recommendation from the Fulton County Planning Board.

The board, which met earlier this week, said the project will have positive regional economic benefits, according to Senior Planner Sean Geraghty. The county’s recommendation is only advisory, as the town of Johnstown Planning Board is the lead agency on the project.

The project now goes back to the town Planning Board for a May hearing and possibly final site-plan approval.

“If they could get done [with all the local approvals] in the second week of May, that would be good,” Geraghty said.

CG Roxane also requires permits from several state agencies before it can start bottling water under the Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water product line, Geraghty said. He was uncertain of the status of the state permits.

CG Roxane plans to build a 247,000-square-foot bottling plant on Watershed Road in the town of Johnstown in two phases. Phase one is to construct a 142,000-square-foot bottling plant sometime this year. That plant would have the capacity to bottle 310,000 gallons per day. The plant would operate two shifts, each employing 13 people, with one line filling 1-gallon bottles and the other half-liter bottles.

The second phase is to construct a 105,000-square-foot addition to the plant when market conditions permit. The company would then add a third line that would bottle 150,000 gallons per day, also to be sold in half-liter bottles. The company would add another 13 employees at that time.

CG Roxane will purchase 310,000 gallons of water per day from the village of Canajoharie. It is exploring options as to where to obtain the other 150,000 gallons for the third bottling line, Geraghty said.

The company plans to drill test wells on city of Johnstown watershed property in the town of Johnstown to determine whether the water meets regulatory standards to be called spring water.

Geraghty said CG Roxane plans to install an 8-inch or 10-inch water line from the Canajoharie watershed to its bottling plant. In addition, it will rebuild Old Sweet Road to town of Johnstown standards so the road can handle daily traffic from tractor-trailers. The road will connect the plant to Route 29.

The company also needs to run power lines to the new plant. There will be no sewer line connections. Instead, CG Roxane plans to put liquid waste from the plant into two 8,000-gallon underground storage containers, which would be pumped out periodically. Less hazardous backwash from its water purification process would be placed in detention basins, where it can evaporate.