NEW PORTLAND – A land commission has scheduled a public meeting Wednesday to provide information about a proposed spring water pumping station.
Nestle Waters North America Inc., a bottled water company that produces a number of brands of waters including Poland Springs, proposes to put in a commercial pumping station on a 455-acre site in Pierce Pond Township, east of Flagstaff Lake, in Somerset County. Bigelow Preserve is located to the west of the proposed project.
Maine Land Use Regulation Commission has set the public meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, at the Central Elementary School in North New Portland.
The proposed facility would not be a bottling plant, but would transport the water to the applicant’s plants in Poland Springs or Hollis.
The proposed activity would involve up to 40 tanker trucks per day using the Long Falls Dam Road, which accesses the site from the south through the town of North New Portland, Lexington Township and Highland Plantation.
The $1.4 million project would include two production wells with a small building around each well, a paved driveway with a turn-around, a building to house the electronic equipment to run the facility, and an underground pipe running from the two production wells pump station.
The proposal also includes an agreement from the Bureau of Parks and Lands to grant an easement to construct a temporary pumping station and permanent paved access road across 500 feet of state land in abutting Spring Lake Township.
A public meeting on the proposal was held April 26.
Primary concerns expressed at that meeting were the increased truck traffic on the Long Falls Dam Road, with one access located off Route 16 in New Portland, and the potential for water withdrawal to adversely impact the surface and ground water resources of the region.
Copies of the permit application are available for viewing at LURC’s Greenville and Augusta offices, the Somerset County Commissioner’s Office and through Highland Plantation’s first assessor. More information on the meeting can be obtained by contacting Marcia Spencer-Famous at LURC’s Augusta Office at 287-4933.
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