Evolution

&

Permitting

 

 

Chamberlain Springs was established for the harvesting and sale of Spring Water. The spring is located on Sunny Slope Farm, which is the 282 acre Chamberlain family farm in Alton NH.

           

The establishment of the company has been conceptualized in three phases, each with a specific goal and separate initial financing. At the time the project was begun, the goal was to sell spring water in bulk to bottlers around New England.

           

Phase One was begun in February of 2003, and completed in January of 2004. A geo-physical survey was initiated to locate fractured bedrock aquifers by means of VLF radio signals. A likely fracture zone was located near a natural spring which daylights, (i.e. comes to the surface), from a portion of the fracture zone.

 

Conducted by Covel & Associates, LLC, an exploratory well was drilled by Capital Well Company of Dunbarton, NH. to a depth of 500 feet and pumped for forty-eight (48) hours. It established an equilibrium point and yielded eighty (80) gallons per minute. Water samples from both the well and the spring were air freighted to ELAB in Florida for analysis, which indicated conditions consistent with Spring Water quality from both sources.

 

The data was forwarded to GZA GeoEnviornmental for an independent analysis by their hydrologist, who plotted a Piper Diagram, which confirmed that the water from the well is high quality Spring Water. The price of water is market driven and water classified as Spring Water sells at a premium to water classified as drinking water.

 

 On February 12^th, 2004 the existing data gathered to that date were presented at a preliminary meeting with New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) officials to discuss the processes and procedures of application for a large groundwater withdrawal permit. The NHDES said they saw no major issues and thought that it looked like a sustainable project. Obtaining the data and taking that to an initial meeting with the NHDES was the goal of Phase One.

 

The goal of the Phase Two was approval from both the NHDES and the Town of Alton for a large water withdrawal permit ~ “large” being defined as 40 to 200 gallons per minute, or 57,600 gallons per day.  

 

 

NH Dept. of Environmental Services

Large Groundwater Extraction permit

 

 

Two more production wells and two monitoring wells were drilled in the spring of 2005, and the required pumping and water quality tests were completed in July 2005.

 

The Final Application for a large groundwater permit was submitted to the NHDES in September 2005 requesting a permit for 223,200 gallons per day.

 

Town approval has been received from the Alton Zoning Board of Adjustment, as large water extraction is allowed only by special exception. The site plan & hours of operation were approved by the Alton Planning Board in Oct. 2005. The NH Department of Transportation has granted a permit for up to 30 trucks per day, which was also approved by the Alton Planning Board.

 

In November 2005 the NHDES commented on the Final Application. Those comments were addressed with a subsequent pump test in February 2006, which was deemed to adequately address the NHDES's comments.

 

 

On July 26th, 2006

the NHDES issued Chamberlain Springs LLC

a large groundwater extraction permit for the extraction of 155 gallons per minute, 223,200 gallons per day of Spring Water. ...more

 

 

With the granting of the large groundwater extraction permit, Chamberlain Springs LLC entered Phase Three of the project.

 

As originally imagined, Phase Three consisted primarily of the construction of the physical plant to support the extraction and shipment of the Spring Water. As a consequence of increased materials costs, due to consumption required by the war in Iraq, the estimated cost to build that physical plant increased to the point where it made the project increasingly unviable financially. 

 

During the spring of 2008 it became evident that the cost of diesel was also affecting the market. Bottlers in the Northeast were starting to turn to using municipal water supplies run through the Reverse Osmosis filtration system, rather than purchasing & transporting spring water to their facilities. Chamberlain Springs assessed the situation, noting the increasing lack of spring water available on the market and decided to fill that gap with our own bottled spring water.

 

The decision launched another year and a half of investigation & determinations about how to establish a small spring water bottling company. With the help of the NH Dept. of Health & Human Services, it was determined that the existing barn on Sunny Slope Farm already enjoyed many of the attributes necessary for a "water barn". It was also determined that it would only be necessary to extract water from Well #1, greatly reducing the number of gallons taken per day.

 

During the first eight months of 2009 new Zoning Board and Planning Board and Select Board approvals were obtained, equipment was located, materials were design and ordered, financing was secured through Profile Bank, (a small local bank with a strong community orientation). The remodeling of the lower section of the Big Red Barn of Sunny Slope Farm commenced on August 17th, 2009. Chamberlain Springs was granted a license to operate a spring water bottling plant on November 5th, 2009 and the Grand Opening of the Water Barn coincided with NH Open Doors on November 7th, 2009.

 

As we bottle Nh2o ourselves, we currently take extremely small quantities of water from the production well in a week (approximately 200-300 gals/wk) despite the fact that we are permitted to take 223,200 gallons per day (which is still less than a golf course uses to water their lawns, taking fertilizers with it as that water goes back into the aquifer, of course).

 

The intention is to sell "Nh2o, real New Hampshire Spring Water" only in the state of NH, emphasizing the local nature of our product, in keeping with the "localvore movement" which focuses on the "green" aspects of keeping fresh foods local.

 

Please visit us at our

Water Barn

at

Sunny Slope Farm

118 Old Wolfeboro Rd.

Alton

603-875-2220