LIVERMORE FALLS — The Planning Board will meet Thursday to review an updated draft of an ordinance to protect the Moose Hill Pond watershed.

The board had its first glimpse of the proposal in January, and since then it has been updated with feedback from property owners whose land abuts the pond.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Livermore Falls town office.

The purpose of the ordinance is to prevent contamination of Moose Hill Pond, a public drinking water supply in Livermore Falls by preventing contamination of the surface water and ground water that feeds the pond, the proposal states.

Voters in the town will have the final say on whether the ordinance is to be adopted, Doug Burdo, superintendent of the Livermore Falls Water District, said.

Stakeholders, including owners of property that abuts the pond, started meeting in early 2010.

The ordinance is designed to ensure that nothing excessive comes into the watershed, he said.

“We’ve been doing this all along, we’re just putting it in writing,” Burdo said.

“The current property owners are good stewards of their properties, and therefore also good stewards of the drinking water supply,” Susan Breau-Kelley, the USDA source water program manager for Maine Rural Water Association, said. “The ordinance is meant to address future land-use changes.”

“What we’re doing is looking into the future to protect the drinking water source,” she said.

The provisions in the proposed ordinance apply to all proposed industrial and, or commercial land uses and all agricultural operations in the Moose Hill Pond watershed.

The ordinance would not apply to the essential operations of the Livermore Falls Water District and emergency and enforcement operations conducted by official federal, state or local entities.

The source water protection plan was developed by the Moose Hill Pond source water protection stakeholders and prepared by the Maine Rural Water Association.

The Water District currently serves a population of about 3,000 residential customers and numerous schools, churches and restaurants in Livermore Falls and Jay.

Existing protections to the pond and watershed include well managed agricultural and low density residential and timber harvesting uses, the plan states.

Livermore Falls also has a shoreland zoning ordinance, land use standards and a Moose Hill Pond Water Quality Protection Ordinance in place to protect the drinking water supply.

dperry@sunjournal.com .

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