[From reports in the Dale Hollow Horizon by Kevin Donaldson].

The Nestle Waters North America bottling plant in Red Boilings Springs continues to operate at full capacity despite the drought that has prompted water emergencies in both Macon County cities. While the water restrictions in RBS were lifted last week, Nestle continues to tanker in water from the Celina water system in Clay County to meet their needs.

Plant manager Mark Smidebush reports that the plant's water intake on Salt Lick Creek is not currently being used because of the low flow rates, and 100 percent of the bottling plant's water is currently being trucked in from either Celina or Gallatin.

Celina Mayor Buddy Thompson told the Horizon last week that the city was pleased to sell Cumberland River water to Nestle due to debts incurred earlier that severely depleted their water department's funding.

The Celina water department was hit earlier this year by two payments totaling roughly $230,000, which basically depleted the department's operating fund.

“We have really struggled to make ends meet after that,” said Mayor Thompson. “But Nestle is helping us to build that fund back up,” by picking up an average of 750,000 gallons of water each day. The water sales by Celina to Nestle amounts to a monthly tab of between $30,000 and $35,000.

Blue tanker trucks coming back and forth on Hwy. 52 west between Celina and Red Boiling Springs have become a common sight. The average tanker fills up in about eight minutes, according to the Celina paper.

Nestle's public relations spokesperson Elizabeth Lewis said this Tuesday that the plant would continue full operations, and was actually making upgrades to diversify its resources for water to bottle.

Celina officials say “Whatever Nestle needs, we're trying to accommodate them.”

“They've been a good neighbor, and we've got plenty of water and we need to take advantage of that,” said Mayor Thompson.

The Red Boiling Springs plant currently employs more than 160 persons, and as many as 50 of those employees live in Clay County. Nestle Waters recently donated a tractor-trailer load of bottled water to the Clay school system, with city workers helping in delivery to various sites across the county.