Fernbrook Natural Spring Water in Amaranth is again being noticed after about 10 years, because of an apparent upsurge in the number of tankers carting away an unknown quantity of water to Halton Hills — a quantity that could legally range to as much as 654,000 litres a day.

As well, water had become a major issue in Dufferin because of concerns that East Luther residents have for Luther Marsh over their perception that Orica Canada's explosives facility poses a threat to Luther Marsh and the Grand River.

In addition, a large group of Melancthon and Mulmur residents are worried about what will happen to ground and surface water there should a proposed large quarry be allowed to proceed.

The East Luther and Melancthon/ Mulmur concerns are likely to be argued by experts of opposite views at the Ontario Municipal Board at some point, and thus can't be resolved here, but let's look at who's pumping the most water out of the aquifers we rely on.

Fernbrook is not the largest water taker among the bottling companies. Ice River Springs at Feversham is permitted to take a million litres a day and Nestle's Aberfoyle well is licensed for nearly 3,000 litres (650 Imperial gallons) per minute or whatever that works out to per day.

In 2007, when Toronto Mayor David Miller was trying to impose a five-cent tax on bottled water, the Toronto Star lamented that Ice River Springs had paid the Ontario government "only $3,000 for the right to pump this seemingly unlimited supply of freshwater."

The Star went on to comment that the bottled water industry is the only one that doesn't pay any royalties for what it takes.

"What other industry in this country gets away with paying next to nothing for the primary resource it uses in the production of its products? At least the petroleum, mining and forestry industries are required to make royalty payments to governments for the raw materials they extract," the article by Tony Clarke said.

Supposing, instead of Mayor Miller's suggestion that his city impose a 5¢ tax on each 500 mL bottle, the province were to empower affected municipalities to collect a royalty of 10 cents a litre from firms like Fernbrook for the water they extract from the aquifer.

Fernbrook drew a little over 136 million litres in 2008. At 10 cents, this would have amounted to $13.6 million to be shared by Amaranth and the county or used by Amaranth alone if it were paid as "an amenity," as is the case with the wind turbines.

Could water-bottlers afford the freight? Indeed, they would likely pass on the cost to consumers rather than to absorb it in their profit margins.

Would anything be wrong with that at a time when municipalities want to reduce bottled water consumption while reducing the number of plastic bottles going both to recyclers and to landfill sites, not to mention that the plastics industry is consuming vast amounts of precious petroleum in manufacturing?

When Dufferin was moving to ban bottled water in county building, Nestle wrote to municipalities pleading with them not to follow suit as, said Nestle, the bottling industry takes only a small fraction of the amount used by agriculture for irrigation.

That might well be true, but it is a foolish comparison for several reasons.

First off, irrigation water is being returned to the land and some of it will serve to recharge the aquifer. Secondly, most of the agricultural irrigation might be taken from surface water (such as Alberta's Oldman River for the often drought-stricken Prairies).

It might be worthwhile noting that Orangeville, as an example, drew a total of just over 3 million cubic metres (3 billion litres) in 2008. But that wasn't all for drinking. Public Works Director Jack Tupling says it was "the total to the distribution system," which includes firefighting, hydrant flushing and maintenance, among other things.

Whatever the case might be, water is a valid concern, and it seems unthinkable that a highly profitable industry can extract endless amounts of it without paying any kind of compensation to the people from whom it is taking it away. After all, even the aggregate industry now has to pay small extraction fees to local municipalities.

Consider for a moment that Amaranth taxes its residents about $2 million annually. Even token water royalties could relieve taxpayers of much of that burden.

It is surprising that no MPP has introduced a private member's bill to require such royalties to be paid by the bottling industry. I cannot imagine that such a bill would get much opposition from other MPPs.