Is gushing spring a well of hope for town?

CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. - Just across Interstate 84 from the town of Cascade Locks, hundreds of gallons of crystal clear spring water burst forth from a mountainside.

This is the source that Nestle Waters North America wants to tap for a $50 million bottled water factory it plans to build. For many in this small town in the Columbia River Gorge, the factory and the roughly 50 new jobs it could bring sounds like a new career opportunity.

“It’s good,” said one resident of the town of 1,050. “Putting jobs in this town. This town needs jobs.”

The spring feeds a fish hatchery right now. The city would swap water rights, and the hatchery would get well water. Nestle would pay the city about a fifth of a cent per gallon for the water; it’s bottled water products sell for about $1.40 per gallon. The company plans to draw 100 million gallons a year from the spring, filling its Arrowhead and Pure Life water bottles.

“We started out, I understand, with about 90 businesses in the late 60s, and now we're down to about a dozen and a lot of us are just hanging on by sheer will so anything that comes will be good,” said Mayor Brad Lorang.

The plant would double the town’s tax base, the mayor said.

But not everyone likes it.

“I don't necessarily oppose it,” said Katelin Stuart. “I'm just the most outspoken person around  here evidently.”

She worries about the environment and truck traffic.

“I agree that we need jobs,” she said. “I don't necessarily agree this is the way to get it. It's only 48 jobs. There's no guarantee it just goes to people in Cascade Locks.”

Several state agencies would have to approve the plan before it could move forward.