It looks like Nestlé Waters North America won’t be setting up shop in Black Diamond.

Nestle has been in discussions with the city of Black Diamond for a number of months, exploring the possibility of establishing a spring water bottling plant and becoming a commercial customer of Black Diamond’s spring water, but in a letter sent to the city of Black Diamond Thursday, the company has decided not to continue its pursuit there.

“This has been part of the company’s strategy to develop a new facility in the Pacific Northwest to meet regional market needs,” wrote Nestle Project Manager Chris Kemp. “As we have looked at logistics and optimizing our production network, we’ve decided for business reasons not to continue to pursue developing a spring water bottling facility in Black Diamond at this time. It is possible that sometime in the future we could revisit that decision.”

Friday morning, Black Diamond Mayor Howard Botts said he did not know specifics as to why Nestle no longer wished to pursue Black Diamond.

Nestle is the largest producer of bottled water in the United States and boasts production plants throughout the U.S. and Canada. Water is bottled under a variety of labels; in the West, customers are familiar with the Arrowhead brand, while customers in other parts of the nation might be drinking Ozarka or Ice Mountain.

Currently, Nestle trucks its bottled water to the Northwest, a situation the company is hoping to bring to an end. The goal of Nestle Water North America is to build a plant in either Washington or Oregon. The company has no facilities in the upper tier of the U.S.

Nestle is looking for a community that has natural spring water as part of its municipal supply. According to the presentation made in Black Diamond, the company would plan on drawing about 300 gallons per minute from a natural spring, capturing the water before it becomes part of the municipal supply. The water would be diverted to a bottling plant nearby, with Nestle« picking up the tab for all infrastructure costs.

Nestle is envisioning a plant about 250,000 square feet in size that would require about 45 employees. In the plant, raw material would be turned into plastic bottles, which would immediately be filled and shipped.

The company at one time had hoped to have a plant operating by 2010.

Nestle made a presentation at a Black Diamond Council meeting in August.

Nestle made a similar proposal to the city of Enumclaw, but City Hall was inundated with public comments, nearly all of them opposed to the idea of Nestle locating in town. Some were concerned about the impact on the city’s long-term water supply, others shuddered at the thought of perhaps an additional 100 trucks rumbling through town and still others were concerned that Nestle might make promises that wouldn’t be kept.

An ad hoc committee was formed to study the proposal, but most city leaders agreed to scrap the idea before it went very far. Two council members complained that the city should at least take a fair look at the Nestle plan, but public sentiment was overwhelmingly against the concept.

Botts said some Black Diamond citizens also had concerns.

Reach Brenda Sexton at bsexton@courierhearld.com or 360-802-8206.