KINGFIELD – In a meeting with the Water District Monday, hydrogeologist and district consultant Keith Taylor updated district trustees about Poland Spring Bottling Co.’s recent pump tests in the Kingfield aquifer.
Taylor was hired as the Water District’s consultant last April, after the town learned Poland Spring was considering opening a bottling plant in Kingfield. District trustees also met with consulting lawyer Greg Cunningham to discuss legal questions regarding Poland Spring.
Taylor told trustees that Poland Spring has finished its first major pumping test. The company pumped 350 gallons of water per minute for seven straight days in September. Taylor explained that the test was done to determine the impact on the aquifer of pumping for a bottling plant, whether the aquifer held enough water to sustain pumping, and whether long-term pumping would affect water quality in the aquifer.
A second pump test will follow the first. After gathering data from both tests, Taylor said, the bottling company will analyze it to determine if the proposed Kingfield site would be an appropriate location for the company. He explained that, both to protect the company’s interest and to follow local, state and federal regulations, the tests must demonstrate that pumping the volume of water proposed from the aquifer would not negatively affect either the environment or the town’s own water supply.
Ideally, Taylor said, the Water District would take 1 percent of the existing water, Poland Spring would take 2 percent, and the remaining 97 percent of aquifer water would remain unchanged. “You wouldn’t want the Water District to take 40 (percent) and Poland Spring to take 40,” he said.
Taylor said that, as part of his review of Poland Spring’s testing, he asked the company to install a separate well along the esker between the test pump and the Water District’s pump, to examine the effects the company’s pumping has on the town’s water supply.
He said the results of the pumping tests should be available in a few weeks.
Planning Board member David Guernsey attended the meeting and discussed with Cunningham and Water District trustees possible ordinances the town might enact to protect its water supply. Cunningham, while refraining from giving advice to the Planning Board, assured meeting-goers that it would be possible to enact ordinances to regulate water extraction for the protection of the town’s water supply.
“There can be provisions that govern impacts on groundwater” in town laws, Cunningham said.
Guernsey said he thinks the town might already have protective laws in place, and that if not, the Planning Board can make them. “The important thing is to ask the right questions,” he said. “I would like to come out of this process with a better regulatory regime. Maybe by the end of this, we’ll know enough to blaze some trails,” and enact effective ordinances, he said.
Taylor said Poland Spring is already in the process of writing an application for the state Department of Environmental Protection permit that is required before building may begin. “I think they’re hoping to have something to the state by the end of the year,” he said.
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