FRYEBURG – A decision on a proposed water trucking facility on Route 302 will once again return to the Board of Appeals on Thursday.

Poland Spring Water Co., a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America, has appealed the Planning Board’s November decision that the facility does not constitute a low-impact business.

The hearing will take place at 6:30 p.m. at Molly Ockett Middle School on Route 302.

The proposed facility would fill a maximum of 50 trucks per day with spring water piped in from a Denmark aquifer. Poland Spring was granted a permit to construct the facility in 2005, but the decision was overturned by the Board of Appeals.

The facility has been contested by the Western Maine Residents for Rural Living, a group claiming that the facility constitutes a commercial development in a rural residential zone. Residents have also raised concerns that include traffic hazards, noise and pollution.

The matter has gone before the Oxford County Superior Court and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, both of which remanded the matter to the Planning Board. In November, the Planning Board voted 3-1 that the facility would not be a low-impact business.

Mark DuBois, a natural resource manager with Nestle Waters, says the concerns raised by Western Maine Residents were all taken under consideration by the 2005 Planning Board.

“It requires very little investigation,” DuBois said. “It doesn’t even hit the DOT’s radar screen for something that is a traffic concern.”

DuBois said a traffic study determined that the facility would be low-impact in relation to the busy road. During the height of the facility’s use, he said, two trucks would use the facility each hour.

DuBois said noise and light were also considered, and problems caused by either would be reduced by a screen of trees and the facility’s location off the road. He said there was also a proposal to shut off trucks to avoid emissions.

DuBois said he considered the main problem to be the definition of a low-impact business.

“It’s not in the zoning ordinance for the town,” he said.

Town Manager Phil Covelli confirmed that the phrase has been used in the town’s comprehensive plan, but not defined.

“That’s open to interpretation,” he said.

In November, residents voted 467-304 to accept a moratorium on the processing and transportation of bulk water for six months. The moratorium is retroactive to all permits issued before Jan. 1, 2005, unless construction at the facility is more than 50 percent completed.

DuBois declined to comment on whether the moratorium would affect the facility if the Board of Appeals approves Poland Spring’s application. He said a second denial could send the matter back through familiar territory.

“I think it would go back to the court system, and probably to Superior Court in Oxford County,” he said.