Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX: CCL) has long guarded the secret location for the source of its Mt Franklin bottled water.
But now it has been forced to reveal where "Mt Franklin" is in real life.
The beverage maker has complained to the NSW Department of Planning about potential pollution of its water source from a future nearby sand mine.
The company's group property development manager Brad McAndrew said its bores in the Southern Highlands, south of Sydney, could experience "contamination of the regional aquifer" if the project went ahead.
"The availability, consistency, reliability and quality of the water extracted from below the land is integral to our business and our customers."
McAndrew's submission showed Coca-Cola's spring water bores are located about 20km south-west of Bowral, on a property on Hanging Rock Road in Sutton Forest.
The boundary of the future quarry is about 2km away.
A Coca-Cola Amatil spokesperson told The Motley Fool that it had requested more information from the NSW Department of Planning.
"We have not received any communication from the department outlining the applicant's response. We look forward to receiving this when available," the spokesperson said.
"These concerns were based on the results of an independent environmental assessment of impacts on our property."
The concern is that millions of cubic metres of fill would need to be trucked in from all over NSW to fill the empty hole left in the quarry.
And that would produce a risk of contaminated soil delivered from elsewhere affecting the water quality.
Coca-Cola stated that its Sutton Forest bores had been used for 10 years and it was planning to operate them "over the long-term".
Wingecarribee Shire Council stated the aquifer was "highly productive" and used "extensively".
"43 registered bores were identified in a 2.4 km radius of the project, including 11 Industrial/irrigator users with entitlements of 457 megalitres a year."
Coca-Cola Amatil shares were down 0.73% on Monday, to close at $9.56.
