PIERCE POND TOWNSHIP – A proposal submitted to the Land Use Regulation Commission to truck water from a Pierce Pond aquifer spurred formation of a new environmental protection group last week.
Citizens for the Protection of Maine’s Groundwater organized to request that a controversial proposal for a pumping station near Pierce Pond in Somerset County by Nestle Waters North America go to a public hearing before a decision is made by LURC commissioners. Two public meetings have been held to date.
The group, comprised of residents from Lexington Township and Highland Plantation, south of Pierce Pond Township, are seeking assistance from Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan to relocate the LURC meeting June 9 from Greenville to New Portland so local residents may attend.
The original controversy stems, not from the pumping station itself, but from the trucking route along 15 miles of Long Falls Dam Road, the only road in or out of the site. Concerns centered around the safety and general impact of up to 40 tanker trucks daily traveling the road. The group, however, is now bringing other concerns to the table.
According to a written statement, the group contends that “the opening of Maine’s unorganized territories to multinational corporations like Nestle for commercial water extraction sets a precedent which has huge implications for the future.”
They believe that the station may be closer to sludge than originally thought. Additionally, they are concerned with the possible destruction of nearby deer yards and the impact the site will have on recreational users in nearby Bigelow Preserve.
Luise Vaughan, a spokesperson for the group, said in a written statement, “The potential environmental and community impacts are so massive and precedent-setting that the full LURC Commission has an obligation to hold official public hearings, not meetings, before deciding on the permit application. There is too much at stake to allow Nestle to proceed before all interested parties and all uncertainties have been resolved.”
Attempts to reach representatives Friday at Poland Spring, the water brand of Nestle Waters, and LURC for comment were unsuccessful.
jhausen@sunjournal.com
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