OTISFIELD – Otisfield’s acreage-based rules for determining the impact of development on lakes favors the Camp Manasseh project on Saturday Pond.

Camp Manasseh Inc. has bought 156 acres on the lake, and plans to develop three acres of the total.

Still, many residents attending an informational Planning Board hearing last week on the project remained concerned that the religious summer camp will have a negative impact on the pond’s water quality.

The pond is shallow and is rated by the state as “moderately sensitive” in terms of water quality.

State lakes biologist Scott Williams, who is helping the board review the project, said he has “no doubt there will be some impact” in terms of phosphorus runoff from the project.

The plan calls for facilities to house between 200 and 250 campers a week during seven weeks of the summer, and fewer at other times.

Williams said Otisfield’s Comprehensive Plan calls for new development to follow the state’s rating system for water bodies, which allocates development on a per acre basis to all land that drains to the water body.

“Because the model is based on how large the parcel of land is, that makes it easier for developer to meet the standard,” Williams said. “There will be a degradation of water quality, but it will be held to a standard over a period of time,” he said.

The plans, which were presented Thursday by the camp’s director, Dan Simoneau, must also be reviewed for storm-water runoff by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Resident Robert Stark said he realized that Simoneau met the acreage standard, but he noted that the buildings, playing fields, septic system and leach field are all concentrated near the shoreline.

“Ninety-five percent of everything is going to be right on the edge of the pond. It’s not going to be filtering down. The question is, can this pond take it?”

The 2,000-gallon-a-day septic system will be set back at least 1,000 feet from the water, and the buildings will be 280 feet back, outside the shoreland zone.

The project’s environmental consultant, George Sawyer, said the phosphorus study he did “shows a very, very small impact.” He said he has talked to Williams, and is willing to move the leach fields to a new location to provide better buffering from the wetlands.

Williams noted that the Oxford County Soil and Water Quality District has been asked to be involved in ongoing water quality monitoring if the project is approved.

Williams noted that water quality data on the pond is limited, dating back to samples taken between 1984 and 1996. The water measured 10 parts per billion of phosphorus, which is moderately high, he said.

“That’s why the lake has a sensitive rating,” he said.