NEW GLOUCESTER — A public hearing on a proposal to establish a water district in town will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the AMVETS Post No. 6 Hall on Route 100.

The town is pursuing public water for Upper Gloucester. The area would be bordered on the west side by Sawyer Road, Bald Hill Road and the Maine Turnpike, a section of Route 100 at Upper Gloucester, and on the east side, Hobbs Drive, Rowe’s Station Road and Hatch Road.

Following the Jan. 10 public hearing, a referendum is required by registered voters living in the proposed district. That vote will take place from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, at the New Gloucester Town Hall.

The water project includes a partnership with Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Remediation, which has been tracking underground gasoline storage tank failures since the 1980s. Benzene and/or MBTE have been detected in 22 Upper Village water supplies.

And, a historic sand/salt open pile has led to household filtering systems in 12 locations to deal with water supplies exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards for sodium and chloride.

The proposed water system that has been identified as a high yield sand/gravel bedrock aquifer at the New Gloucester Fairgrounds has a high water quality and a production rate of 60 gallons per minute, more than twice the anticipated demand.

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