DENMARK – If Poland Spring Water Co. receives permits to build a three-mile pipe to a tanker-loading facility, by next summer it could be getting 105 million gallons of water a year from Denmark’s aquifer.
And locals, besides worrying about the prospect of more truck traffic and noise, have asked officials whether the large extraction will stress the aquifer.
Denmark Board of Selectmen Chairman Ralph Sarty said Wednesday that as a result of residents’ alarm over the proposed well, the town has adopted a 12-page ordinance to protect its groundwater sources.
The state, too, regulates the withdrawal of sizable volumes of water to ensure that sources do not dry up.
Nonetheless, Sarty said, “There is a lot of emotional concern.”
All Denmark residents use wells. And at least 150 properties draw water from the same aquifer that Poland Spring wants to use near Denmark’s western edge, Sarty said.
As Poland Spring, a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America, looks to expand throughout the state to stay competitive in the crowded bottled water industry, towns are beginning to pay more attention. The sand and gravel glacial deposits that create the replete aquifers so desirable to bottling companies are plentiful here, according to Robert Marvinney, a state geologist.
“There are thousands of them,” he said. These aquifers, formed by glacial melting 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, yield high volumes of water because there are so many pore spaces between the grains.
Last year, the state approved two other Poland Spring pumping stations in St. Albans and Pierce Pond Township, and one is pending review in Dallas Plantation near Rangeley, said Scott Whitney of the Maine Department of Health’s drinking water program.
Tom Brennan, Poland Spring’s natural resource manager, said, “We’ve been actively evaluating a number of sites in the region over three years to build up additional capacity to support the growth of our business.”
Sarty said a large number of municipalities, especially towns around Denmark, have requested a copy of Denmark’s new ordinance.
“This was a totally unanticipated thing. Most towns’ zoning do not address large-scale extraction of water. Most towns were blindsided by this, because it is a totally new concept,” Sarty said.
Poland Spring is currently trying to gain permission to build a truck loading facility in Fryeburg’s residential-rural zone. “Natural-resource based” businesses are allowed there. But attorney Philip Merrill, representing a bloc of residents resisting the project, said this clause refers to enterprises like farm stands, not bottled water companies.
Brennan said water companies should not be so shunned. “The economic picture in Maine is not exactly rosy. I see this as an opportunity for the state. It is a clean industry and based on a natural resource that is rapidly renewable,” he said.
And while more trucks might be a worry, the fear of an aquifer being over-exploited is mostly unfounded.
“A lot of people don’t realize that there is considerable state review of water extraction proposals,” Marvinney said. Maine agencies pay particular attention to how surrounding surface water, such as wetlands and wells, might be affected by water extraction proposals, he said.
Marvinney also said a group approved by the Legislature, and requested by Gov. John Baldacci, will be undertaking a comprehensive analysis of water users and agencies in the next two years to ensure Maine’s policies effectively protect groundwater.
“It’s not just bottled water; irrigation is increasing tremendously as well,” Marvinney said, adding that towns are the greatest users of groundwater in the state. “With the increased public interest in water issues, it is time for us to look at these regulations.”
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