CHESTERVILLE — Residents will consider adopting an ordinance to protect water quality in the town in a referendum Tuesday, Nov. 5.

The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Town Office.

The town’s Water Resources Protection Committee developed a proposed ordinance that sets guidelines on commercial water extraction and mineral extraction but does not prohibit them.

The ordinance proposed follows state law but is more stringent in a couple of areas, including guidelines on excavation near a great pond, committee Chairman Fran Fuller said in September.

The proposal is an effort to protect water quality within the town for generations to come, he said.

The ordinance proposes that no part of any excavation operation, including drainage and runoff control features, will be permitted within 100 feet horizontal distance of the normal high-water line of a great pond, and within 75 feet horizontal distance of a normal high-water line of any other water body, tributary or upland edge of a wetland.

It would also prohibit the excavation of mineral extraction within 5 feet of the seasonal high-water table. The state’s guidelines allow for a 2-foot variance, committee member and Selectman Guy Iverson said last month.

Under the ordinance, no ditches, trenches, pumping or other methods could be used to lower the water table to permit more gravel or other mineral extraction than would occur under natural conditions. Digging below the water table would be prohibited. Farm and frog ponds would be exempted.

The proposal would require Chesterville residents to vote on any proposal by a corporation, business or person to engage in groundwater withdrawals for commercial sale connected to water extraction.

A simple majority vote would be needed to allow water to be extracted. If voters approve it, then the permitting process would continue to be handled at the state level.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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