Eldred Township residents on Wednesday were updated on what to expect at the upcoming hearing of a water extraction plan by the Eldred Concerned Citizens Organization, a nonprofit organization that was created for the purpose of fighting to protect the water resources of the township.

The Eldred Township Zoning Hearing Board will convene onMarch 24 to beginhearing testimony related to the application of Nestle Waters NA for a special use permit to extract up to 200,000 gallons of water daily from Chestnut Spring.Many of the township's residents are opposed to the project. Over 100 of the residents have intervened in an appeal to the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas claiming that the ordinance which allows water extraction as a permitted use/special exception on the parcel in question, was changed unlawfully.The ECCO hired attorney James Preston of Bethlehem to represent them in their fight. Preston specializes in zoning and land use law and will also represent ECCO before the Zoning Hearing Board.During the meeting Wednesday night, resident E.J. Kleintop went over what issues residents can expect to be brought up during the hearing."The application is not the pristine document that it was reported to be," Kleintop said. "There is a lot of missing information."Kleintop said one of the concerns is that the applicant bypassed the planning board completely in the matter and went directly to the zoning hearing board.He said in a small town like Kunkletown, zoning hearing boards rarely hear matters of such magnitude and that they are so rarely called into action that they really aren't prepared and don't have the resources and time to sort through three volumes of standardized test reports with some actual data thrown in."We are very lucky we were able to hire the attorney we have," Kleintop said. "He's hasn't said much, but he has done plenty in the Monroe County courthouse."There are a lot more questions coming out now that the application has been filed. Onequestion is whether or not Nestle knew that water extraction was not a permitted use on the property in question in 2012 when they first began this project."It is very telling that Nestle was there since 2012 but only signed a lease for the property 28 days after the ordinance was changed," Kleintop said.