FARMINGTON – A hearing is scheduled Friday, March 2, on an appeal to overturn a decision allowing Poland Spring Water Co. to build a pumping station in Dallas Plantation, east of Rangeley.

An alliance made up of individuals, the Rangeley Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Trails for Rangeley Area Coalition, Rangeley Crossroads Coalition, the Oquossoc Water District and the Loon Lake Association filed the appeal with the Land Use Regulation Commission in April.

The water company is a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America.

“The general thrust of the appeal is that Nestle’s proposed use is an industrial/commercial use not allowed in the management district where located,” said alliance lawyer Sarah McDaniel of Murray, Plumb and Murray. “Obviously everybody’s main concern is that the traffic impacts do not meet the standards,” she said.

The station is planned for Redington Road, which is off Route 16, Poland Spring Natural Resources Manager Tom Brennan said. The application filed in 2005 asked LURC to approve the construction of a station that will pump no more than 350 gallons of water per minute, to be carried by no more than 100 tanker trucks per day to bottling facilities.

Poland Spring has bottling plants in Kingfield, which would have trucks heading north on Route 16 through Stratton and on to Kingfield, and in Poland, which would have trucks heading south on Route 16 into the center of Rangeley and then on to Route 4 into Lewiston and Auburn.

Traffic is the big issue, said Crossroads Coalition founding member Cathryn Thorup.

“We are extremely concerned about the impact this operation is already beginning to have on Rangeley in terms of the tanker traffic,” she said. “Rangeley’s future really depends on its ability to attract tourism. … It is our feeling that 200 tankers a day going through Rangeley is completely at odds with what tourists are looking for when they come here.”

Representatives for LURC and Poland Spring did not immediately return calls for comment on Thursday, but LURC Director Catherine Carroll has said she disagrees with the petitioners’ claim that the facility is an industrial use.

“It’s water extraction. It’s a pump, and a pad for a truck. That is not an industrial use. I see a sawmill as an industrial (use). This was a permit for water extraction.” She called the appeal “far-fetched.”

Brennan has said the appeal is unfortunate. The project is part of a regional project, and represents lots of opportunity for the region as a whole, he has said.

That doesn’t cut it for folks in the Rangeley area, who voted during the last town meeting to support the appeal with tax dollars. “This … is an issue that has united the community of Rangeley like no other issue that I’ve ever seen,” Thorup said.