Eldred Township residents waited over two hours for their chance to speak Wednesday night in Kunkletown.

They waited patiently through an hour of discussions on routine details of the who will and what then of the Eldred Township Community Center.When the time came for them to finally have their say, they took full advantage of it."You spent over an hour on the community center; this is your community right here," said E.J. Kleintop, gesturing to the crowd that packed the room.At that point the crowd broke into applause.Kleintop read from a list of concerns from local residents who he claimed asked him to speak on their behalf regarding the proposed water extraction by Nestle N.A. under the Deer Park label.Kleintop said he did not believe that the supervisors were fully aware of a number of issues that were on his list.The list included the fact that there is a deed which deeds the water rights from the property which is currently being tested by Nestle to a large number of households in the township."I believe that is a private deed restriction, and it is enforceable by private property owners in the Court of Common Pleas," said township solicitor Michael Kaspszyk. "It is not something that the township would enforce."Kleintop also referred to the property as having been used for "a refuse pile" and that there is a septic issue as well.As it turns out, the homes along one side of the Buckwa Creek, the ones which have the water rights in their deed, also have their septic systems located on the other side of the creek, where the test wells are being drilled.Referring to a motion made by Supervisor Mary Anne Clausen at a previous meeting, Kleintop said, "Supervisor Clausen, you made a motion to send the land use provision back to planning."At that meeting the motion failed to get a second and died without action.Kleintop encouraged Clausen to make the motion again."Why should I make a motion that will not be seconded," Clausen said. "All I will accomplish is embarrassing my colleagues. That doesn't accomplish anything.""I would rather discuss what we can do, what we can ask for in dealing with Nestle," Clausen went on. "Correct me if I am wrong, Mike, but we can't just say no."The residents continued to pressure Clausen to make the motion throughout the remainder of the meeting.The argument was that the residents wanted to see supervisors Gretchen Gannon Pettit and Sharon Solt refuse to second the motion."I have a petition here with 1,000 signatures asking for the board to send the ordinance back to the planning commission for revision," said Curt Bush.The petition asks the supervisors to allow the planning commission to revise the section dealing with water extraction.The change would be to move the use back to industrial from light commercial.Clausen made a concession by saying that while she would not make the motion again, if one of her fellow supervisors made the motion, she would gladly second it.Gannon Pettit did point out that the township has hired a hydrogeologist to review the data provided by Nestle."Will the township's hydrogeologist be able to conduct his own testing and studies?" asked resident Donna Deihl."That is up to the supervisors," Kaspszyk said. "That is private property, so it would be up to the property owner as well."I would like to think that Nestle would cooperate."The board set a tentative meeting date for an information session with the Department of Environmental Protection and Philip Getty, the township hydrogeologist, for Sept. 23.Residents should check the township website for updates on the meeting date and time.Kleintop ended his remarks with a plea."This would give you a second chance, put it back where it belongs," he said. "If not, you are openly ignoring your residents. You need to bring this back to planning."Nestle's hydrogeologist, Eric Andreus, was present at the meeting and asked to speak."I have an office here and I am willing to meet with any residents that have questions or who would like to see what we are doing," Andreus said. "Obviously this is a very passionate issue in the community. The DEP and the water commission have stringent permitting requirements."They will set constraints on any permits they issue, and we will work within those constraints."We have never impacted a residential well," he said. "We have two sites in Pennsylvania right now that we have decreased production on voluntarily, even though there are no current drought conditions requiring it."When Andreus tried to answer another question from a resident, a general din of noise rose from the crowd.Gannon Pettit threatened to adjourn the meeting if the crowd did not quiet down to listen to Andreus' answer.Someone shouted, "Then adjourn it," and at that, Gannon Pettit banged the gavel and adjourned the meeting.