PERU – Selectmen on Monday night were presented with a petition from Worthley Pond residents stating they want the public spring on Green Woods Road kept open.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services ordered the town to install a chlorination system by Sept. 15 or close it because three tests in one year have shown the presence of coliform bacteria, which comes from human and animal feces.

Sixteen camp residents attended Monday’s meeting.

Resident Dave Arsenault had 149 signatures from people around the pond who wanted to keep the spring open.

“I approached 50 people with the plea to save the spring and only one didn’t sign,” he said.

Claudia Morris said, “The taxes on our pond property surely would provide sufficient funds to keep the spring open.”

“It is not a matter of the board wanting to close the spring, but the town cannot afford the fine that would be imposed if we were to keep it open,” Selectman Bill Hine said.

Bonnie Best said, “We get all the water we use at our camp from that spring. We need it.”

She asked how the samples were taken because she had experience in testing samples. She suggested that shipping the sample to Augusta might be long enough for bacteria to develop.

Selectmen’s secretary Kathy Hussey said she gets the sample late in the afternoon in time to make the last posting. She sends it in the bottles provided by the state and they get it the next day.

Best asked if they were packed in ice.

Hussey replied no, but the state came and tested after the three positives and they also got a positive reading.

The question of cleaning the pipes properly was discussed. Jim Pulsifer said the proper way is to put bleach in the well and seal the spigot at the spring letting the bleach work for 24 hours through the pipes. However, he said, people will come to the spring, find the water is off, ignore the sign and go looking until they find the cutoff and turn the water back on, which negates the whole treatment process.

Hussey said she thinks the problem lies in the pipe at the spigot and thinks treating more often would take care of the problem. Pulsifer agreed.

She said other towns with springs are having the same problems.

Hine said the board would continue working with the state to see if more cleaning and more treatments would give the town a little more time to get clear test results. However, the deadline remains Sept. 15.

for closing the spring unless the town hears otherwise from the state.