KINGFIELD – Poland Spring has purchased options on several parcels for the potential construction of its third water bottling plant in Maine, a company spokesman confirmed Thursday.
A new plant would cost $100 million to $150 million to build and would employ 80 to 300 people by 2007, spokesman Tom Brennan said.
He would not identify where the parcels are located in Kingfield.
The Maine-based water bottling company, a subsidiary of Nestle Waters of North America, has been considering Kingfield as a potential location for its next bottling plant for the past six months, when company hydrogeologists first verified the location of a large aquifer under the town, Brennan said.
Poland Spring’s existing plants in Poland and Hollis are quickly reaching capacity, Brennan said. “We can look ahead, and in doing that exercise, we understand that to meet the projected growth we need more (water) sources,” he said. “Eventually we’ll have the potential for more (growth) than our existing plants can offer, so we’ll need another plant.”
Poland Spring hydrogeologists have been considering a variety of sources all over the state in an attempt to find a promising location for a new bottling plant and pumping station, including some areas in Somerset County, Brennan said.
Company leaders settled on Kingfield largely because of the quantity and quality of the water in the large aquifer beneath West Kingfield Road. The Greater Kingfield watershed stretches over 45,000 acres.
Poland Spring, founded in Poland in 1845, pumps water from underground aquifers, which provide a natural purification system. The Maine firm was bought by Nestle Waters North America in 1980, the largest bottled water company in the United States, with both domestic and foreign brands.
According to Jack McKee, a trustee of the Kingfield Water District, the town draws about 50 gallons of water from the aquifer per minute. Brennan said Poland Spring hydrogeologists believe that the aquifer’s potential yield is “many times that.”
“My gut feeling tells me that, if managed properly, the potential yield is in the several hundreds of gallons per minute,” Brennan said.
In deciding whether to build a plant Kingfield, “we can get 80 percent of the way there pretty quickly, but that last 20 percent takes awhile,” Brennan said, adding that before investing in a bottling plant in Kingfield the company plans to test the aquifer through the summer.
“For us, one of the real telling activities is a long-term pumping test,” Brennan said.
If all goes as planned, Brennan said, Poland Spring could start bottling in Kingfield by late 2007.
If problems arise during the testing or permitting processes in Kingfield, Poland Spring may be forced to open a plant outside of Maine, although according to Brennan, the company has identified other locations in Maine to investigate before moving out of state.
Many Kingfield residents are in favor of a potential bottling plant. One resident, who asked not to be identified, reportedly owns land that could be purchased by Poland Spring.
“People who have been in Kingfield and who have loved Kingfield are very for having new industry coming in,” the resident said.
According to Diane Christen, who owns the Woodman Restaurant on Route 27, and who has signed an agreement allowing Poland Spring to use her land as a water testing site, most Kingfield residents support the proposed plant with the caveat that Poland Spring not disrupt Kingfield life unnecessarily.
Kingfield is about 15 minutes south of Sugarloaf/USA, renowned for its skiing and award-winning golf course. There is little industry in the area and one main road that leads from Farmington to the Canadian border in Coburn Gore.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Christen said. “We’re concerned with our lifestyles out here, and with the effect its going to have on our water, but it’s going to bring jobs and make businesses out here raise their hourly rates.”
Other residents expressed more reservations.
Jane Royall, who lives on West Kingfield Road, explained that, “Those of us who are opposed are particularly afraid for our water table and the aquifer beneath our land.” She encouraged town officials to enact ordinances to protect the town’s roads and water sources, saying that, “a lot of times once they’ve moved in, it’s too late to make these ordinances. It would break our hearts to see this town get ruined like that. Poland Springs is a big, big company.”
Nestle Waters has 42.1 percent of the bottled water market in the United States.
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