...[When] the company's [water] supplier, the Kent County Water Authority, sent Amgen a letter in 2004 expressing concern about a strained water supply, the company asked for a written guarantee that it would be able to draw down as much as 800,000 gallons of water a day without fail. The authority withheld a written guarantee. As the two sides negotiated, Amgen started looking into ways to cut both costs and the company's impact on the environment by reducing water use. It took a few years and several hundred thousand dollars, but now...Amgen has an extensive water conservation system in place at both its drug manufacturing plants here.