WAUTOMA, Wis. (AP) - The Perrier Group has met with state officials about its proposal to bottle water from the Mecan River, a prized trout stream, The Post-Crescent of Appleton reported.

Perrier executives have talked to state officials about accessing the water by drilling a well in a state-owned natural area that surrounds Mecan Springs, a scenic grouping of spring ponds that feed the Mecan River with cold, clean groundwater, the newspaper reported Saturday.

Company officials want a 250,000-square-foot bottling plant in the rural Town of Richford that would initially employ 50.  It would eventually be 1 million square feet and employ 250 people, the newspaper said.

Conservationists and biologists are worried about the effects of paving a large area of open land near the springs.

"If you just took the parking lot area roads and rooftops of a facility that big, it is hard for us to comprehend what we would have in runoff, mixed with oils and fuels," said Elward Engle, a retired state Department of Natural Resources land agent who lives in Wautoma.

The plan was presented Wednesday to state officials including Brenda Blanchard, secretary of the Department of Commerce and DNR Secretary George Meyer, the newspaper said.

The DNR is considering Perrier's request to drill on state-owned land, Meyer said.  Perrier would have to obtain an easement from the DNR and a permit for the well, he said.

"Any bottling would not be done anywhere near our property," Meyer said.  "If there is a facility, it would be a large bottling facility, three quarters of a mile or more from the springs."

Perrier executives at the company's headquarters in Greenwich, Conn., were not available for comment.

The company will meet with DNR technicians to pursue the proposal, Meyer said.

"Clearly we would bring this to the Natural Resources Board if we decided to move forward," Meyer said.  "I have made it clear that I would not recommend or support any project that would diminish either the quality or quantity of water in Mecan Springs."

The state considers the river and its spring ponds valuable, buying up land around them for decades.

The spring, located west of Wautoma in an undeveloped corner of Waushara County dominated by small farms, is known for its wild trout streams.

"It is just beautiful," said Dave Johnson, a Trout Unlimited board member and Wautoma resident.  "There are huge bluffs surrounding the springs. Bald eagles frequent the area.  We are concerned that the pristine nature of that area is going to be damaged."

The Mecan River is one of the few homes of naturally reproducing populations of brook, brown and rainbow trout.

Trout survive only in cold, clean water and exist in Wisconsin because of the state's rich groundwater resources.

The upper reaches of the river are surrounded by the state's Mecan River State Fisheries Area.

"It just scares me a little bit that we might allow a commercial activity like this on a protected resource," DNR fisheries biologist Al Niebur said.

Perrier pointed out one of their plants in Maine that draws water from a well drilled in a state park without adversely affecting groundwater supplies, Meyer said.

But Niebur said even the smallest reductions in groundwater seepage could hurt fish spawning and larval rearing.  Important wetland plants could be diminished or lost, he said.

If groundwater seepage were reduced by as little as one cubic foot per second, the streamn temperature could increase by one degree, according to a 1965 study by the U.S. Geological Service.

"It is kind of a scary situation," Engle said.  "We are looking at one of the most beautiful rivers in the whole Midwest.  To have something that large right next to it is going to bring alarm to a lot of people."

Alice also suggests you may want to email DNR chief George Meyer.