KINGFIELD – The Planning Board continued late Wednesday night to fine tune conditions to be imposed on Poland SpringWater Co. if its application to build a bottling plant here is approved.

Deliberations on the nearly 1,000-page-thick application to build a $60 million to $80 million plant in Kingfield have been going on for more than a week. Board members and lawyers from the firm Eaton Peabody have spent more than 9 hours comparing zoning ordinances and board responsibilities with the application.

Where the application falls short in board members’ eyes – seeming lax on creating light and sound buffers, for example – the board has negotiated conditions Poland Spring will have to follow in order to get a permit.

“I think they’ve been very meticulous. They’re doing their job,” Poland Spring’s Tom Brennan said Wednesday night. “I’m not troubled by it. It makes the process more detailed, but that’s a good thing, in the long run.”

In the multitude of public hearings and public meetings that have taken place to discuss the proposed plant, opponents have pointed to increased traffic, noise and light pollution, and the amount of water extracted, saying it will damage Kingfield’s village atmosphere.

On the other side, proponents have asked what good atmosphere is if regular folks can’t find jobs, and all the property is bought up by flatlanders.

But the major issues for the Planning Board are more concrete, and in some ways, harder to answer. It’s not their job to decree what the town’s atmosphere is, but to make sure Kingfield is protected and the town zoning laws are followed if the company comes to town.

One major concern, board Chairman David Guernsey said Wednesday, is how to regulate bulk water withdrawal in a way that gives Poland Spring enough flexibility to run its company while protecting the town’s water supply.

The board must also make sure enough monitoring is in place so that if the Kingfield aquifer is any way negatively impacted by the company’s 200 million gallon per year withdrawal, it can be detected early and stopped before serious damage is done.

“That was the major concern,” Guernsey said. “And I think we’ve pretty much put it to bed.” All the experts – from Kingfield-hired hydrogeologists, to water district trustees, to Poland Spring people, to Kingfield’s attorneys – agree the Poland Spring plan should not overstress the aquifer. “And they have a very comprehensive monitoring system,” Guernsey added.

Traffic, the height of signs, the amount of setback and quality of buffers, the number of parking spaces and the effect lighting will have if magnified by snow on the ground around the plant were also major issues of discussion, Guernsey said.

Board members instructed their lawyers to write up a final version of the approval everyone now expects is coming soon. It will be looked at, and possibly voted on, at next Thursday’s Planning Board meeting.