On Dec. 16, a public hearing on the proposed Middleway bottling plant was postponed by court order.

The hearing, which would have been held the following day (Dec. 17) by the Jefferson County Planning Commission, will now take place on Feb. 11. The delay had been sought by the Jefferson County Foundation, who argued that the Planning Commission had violated state law by not giving the public or the parties sufficient notice. The judge agreed, and the law does seem clear as to how many days’ notice are required.

I’m glad this suit was brought, because some local governing bodies (the Jefferson County Commission, the Jefferson County Planning Commission, some other county agencies and some city and town councils) have ignored laws regarding transparency. Members of these governing bodies should be made aware that they are to work for the people, not themselves.

In last month’s column, I suggested there should be a serious scientific study of our groundwater before we allow the plant to be built, as it proposes to remove 1.7 million gallons per day from our aquifer and take it elsewhere. There are also other considerations.

Sidewinder LLC, the developer desiring the permit, should be required to build a road directly from the plant to West Virginia Route 51 (incurring whatever expense necessary), so that the industrial traffic generated by the plant avoids the historic village of Middleway. I’m told the company says it won’t do this.

If that’s true, it shouldn’t be permitted to build the plant. The proposed water line to the plant should likewise be required to avoid the village.

The company should be ordered to severely reduce the size of the plant. I’m told it is to be about a million square feet under roof, making it the largest water bottling plant in the world by several hundred thousand square feet. The company could easily make a serious profit with a plant half that size.

Also, reducing the plant’s size would help dispel one of the rumors flying around about this proposed development — that the proposal isn’t about a bottling plant at all, but an AI data center. I’m generally leery of rumors and I’m skeptical about this one. I think it has gained traction because (a) it would explain the size of the building, (b) data centers need a lot of water and © data centers are being built near here. To Sidewinder: cut the size in half — this rumor will go away and you will still make a lot of money from bottling water.

Removing groundwater is a nonconforming use, and the developer’s application can be rejected for that reason alone, should the Planning Commission have the gumption to do so. I hope it does so, but I understand that the Planning Commission has been told by legal counsel that it cannot reject applications for nonconforming uses.

If that’s true, we really don’t have zoning in Jefferson County. If the public discovers that’s true, it will be to the consternation of a great majority of our county’s population.

John Doyle is a 26-year former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. He can be reached at rjohndoyle@comcast.net.