LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- For the first time, the Niagara Bottling is publically defending itself against complaints about its new Lake County plant. The company wants to suck 500,000 gallons of water a day out of the aquifer and bottle it up to sell it.

That same aquifer provides water to 99 percent of Central Florida. A Niagara spokesperson told Eyewitness News on Wednesday that water will stay in the state.

Niagara Bottling has spent $15 million to purchase and re-fit a plant near Groveland. From Lake County, the company will withdraw 177 million gallons of water from the aquifer a year and put it in jugs, at a time when Central Floridians are being told to conserve.

"The state is not running out of drinking water. The aquifer is not going dry," said Niagara spokesperson Honey Rand.

Rand says the operation will not harm the environment and the company's permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District gives them the legal go-ahead. Rand says Niagara was actually recruited to set up shop there.

"Specifically meeting with the county commission and staff of Lake County," Rand said.

County commissioners Elaine Renick and Welton Cadwell both told Channel 9 the commission did not know Niagara had plans to tap Central Florida's water supply and sell it. Now, the two sides are heading for a lengthy and expensive legal battle. Niagara says it's not the corporate villain some are making it out to be.

Instead, Niagara says they'll be good neighbors and already have. The company says it donated drinking water to Central Florida after the 2004 hurricanes and they promise to provide 200 jobs once the plant is open. In the meantime, they're trying to clear their name.

"There's something emotional about the notion of bottling water, which is ironic, because we're all drinking it," Rand said.

Niagara will be the seventh bottled water plant in operation in the St. Johns Water Management District and there is already one other bottled water plant in Lake County. There are four plants in Marion County and one in Nassau County.