Nestle Ice Mountain bottled water factory.jpg

Ice Mountain brand bottled water on the packaging line at the Nestle Waters North America factory in Stanwood, Mich., on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. (Garret Ellison | MLive)

(Garret Ellison | MLive)

LANSING, MI -- Last week, Heidi Grether had a simple question.

Why is the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality taking it on the chin over its handling of public review on a request by Nestle Waters North America to increase the amount of groundwater it pumps in Osceola County?

C. Heidi Grether, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, speaks at Lansing Community College on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.

"Why are we in the middle of this storm?" Grether, a former oil industry lobbyist and spokesperson appointed to head the DEQ in August, asked her employees.

"They said, 'Well, staff didn't think this was a big deal,'" Grether said in response to a question about the perceived lack of transparency during an air & waste management law conference in Lansing on Thursday, Dec. 1.

"I thought, 'OK, was anybody around the first time Nestle had this conversation, because it was a big deal then," she said. "We have a lot of staff that have been here. Why in the world would this be a surprise?"

The DEQ has received more than 3,000 emails since Oct. 31, when Michigan citizens, through the news media, learned about Nestle's plans to increase the amount of groundwater it pumps from a well northwest of Evart by 167 percent.

The flood of public comment that poured in just days before the window was scheduled to end on Nov. 3 prompted the DEQ to extend comment acceptance into March, and plan a yet-to-be-scheduled public hearing on the bottler's plans.

The agency has since taken significant flak for giving draft approval for Nestle to increase the water it pumps from White Pine Springs Well No. 101, from 150 to 400 gallons-per-minute (gpm) without wider public notification beforehand.

Today, Nestle can pump about 250 gpm at the well in Osceola Township. Although Nestle seeks a pumping increase from 150 to 400 gpm, the DEQ Water Resources Division already approved a 100 gpm increase in the initial baseline rate last year. However, Nestle needs the second layer of regulatory approval because together the dual increases exceed 200,000 gallons per day.

Although the Water Resources Division staff approved the increase after a site-specific review overruled a computer model assessment that failed Nestle's request, the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires the DEQ Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance's approval to dial up the pumping.

Nestle says that, although it welcomes public dialogue, the company "publicly discussed this permit proposal with local stakeholders, including civic leaders and Non-Governmental Organizations."

"In addition, the draft permit was available online for public comment for 42 days with no objections logged," Christopher Rieck, Nestle Waters North America spokesperson, wrote in a Nov. 22 email.

Nestle says the increase won't significantly harm nearby surface waters. A citizens group which previously sued Nestle says the proposal needs independent hydrologic review.

In September, public notice about Nestle's pumping increase was published in the DEQ Environmental Calendar, a bi-weekly clearinghouse for permitting decisions and official business that's posted online but not widely read by the general public. The DEQ issued no press releases or local notices.

Jim Olson is an attorney who represented the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation in a nine-year court battle with Nestle that resulted in a settlement limiting how much water the company could pump from its Rodney wells. Olson subsequently praised the DEQ decision to backpedal and extend the public review, but said the overall right of Michigan citizens to participate in government decisions about water has been "diminished to the point of absurdity."

Grether's question "puts a finger on the pulse of a serious problem that has been piling up errors and frustration for some time -- the lack of adequate public notice, information, and meaningful comment and participation by those the department is charged by the constitution and law to protect," Olson said.

"This problem was at the core of the water crisis in Flint and the Detroit water shutoffs," he said. "It's at the core of Nestle's proposal to export another 210 million gallons of water a year out of our watersheds. We need a transformative reexamination of our government's responsibility as a steward, with an openness, serious engagement, and a desire to do the right thing when it comes to people, our public water and communities."

DEQ staff has said agency divisions are considering changes to public notification procedures regarding permitting decisions.

Grether, a former public relations professional who succeeds Dan Wyant as head of an agency still embroiled in the Flint water crisis effects, spoke candidly about the DEQ's failure to recognize a hot button issue earlier in the process.

"Was this advertised and noticed in a way it should have been? Probably not, it appears to me," she said.

Gether said people can have a tendency to "think about their little world and they are not thinking about the big picture or understanding or sending up a flare and saying, 'Ah, you know, this might be a little dicey.'"

Grether said she wants to develop an after-action report on the Nestle review.

She wants to "sit down and say, 'What did you do, what didn't you do, how should this have been done?'" Grether said. "Because I don't think it's been done the way it should be -- at least the way I would have liked it to be done."

To comment on the Nestle proposal, email deq-eh@michigan.gov, or send mail to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, P.O. Box 30241, Lansing, Michigan 48909.

Comments must be received by March 3, 2017.