CALAIS – The federal government may have said no, but Calais officials are not giving up on their hope to obtain water for the municipal water system from the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

Acting City Manager Jim Porter said Thursday that as a result of letters to the president, federal officials and others, the city has made progress with regard to drilling for water at the refuge.

“They are at least keeping an open mind to the possibility,” he said.

But city officials also have raised the ire of their neighbors in nearby Baileyville because of statements made by the city’s water project director, Norm Dineen, about that town’s water quality.

Baileyville offered to sell water to Calais after refuge officials refused to allow the city to develop a water source at the refuge.

Last November, the city wrote to President Bush asking for his intervention at the refuge. The president did not respond.

In a follow-up letter to Bush dated Jan. 29, Porter again asked for the president’s help in obtaining water from the refuge. Several years ago, during the Clinton administration, the Department of Interior denied the city the right to drill for water on federal lands.

City officials, however, hope this president will exert pressure on the department to reverse itself on the water-drilling issue.

The city now buys its water from St. Stephen, New Brunswick, but a change in federal water standards and drought conditions have forced the city to look elsewhere for a water source. St. Stephen officials plan to turn off the tap on Oct. 1, 2003.

In his letter to the president, Porter attached a copy of a letter written by Dineen last month and sentto Thomas Urquhart, former head of the Maine Audubon Society. The letter details the history of the project.

In 1995, the city negotiated with refuge officials to allow it to tap into an aquifer at Hanson Pit and the city was ready to proceed with construction. City officials offered to swap 260 acres the city owns near the refuge for 20 acres at the refuge.

In 1990, though, the Department of Interior rescinded its approval because of “new rules passed in 1997 [that] were implemented in 1999” that did not allow water to be taken from the refuge.

“Their reasoning was that this would be precedent-setting,” Dineen said. “This, even though extensive testing proved no adverse effects on the water table or the mission of the refuge.”

At issue is a fear that similar requests would be made by cattle ranchers in Western states where water is in short supply.

Dineen said he believes that because proposed construction of a well system at the refuge occurred before the rule change in 1999, the city should be grandfathered under the former rules.

After the federal government refused permission, city officials cast about for an alternative and began testing in the area of the city’s Industrial Park. That test well has demonstrated that it can produce about half the supply that the city will need.

During its search of water at the refuge, Baileyville offered to sell water to the city.

In his letter, Dineen said the Baileyville water is “poorer in quality and will require all consumers in Calais to install and maintain expensive water filtering equipment.”

Dineen also said that “the water has a negative reputation with our customers because of its distinctive taste-odor and because it is sourced from wells near a chemical wood pulp mill.”

Baileyville Town Manager Jack Clukey on Thursday rejected Dineen’s comments about the quality of water in Baileyville. He said that when the town’s wells went on line several years ago they did have to chlorinate, but the chlorination has since been scaled back.

“We have had very few complaints about the chlorination part of it,” he said. In fact, Clukey said, people comment on how good the water tastes.

Addressing the issue of in-house water filtering equipment, the town manager said some people on the Baileyville system have installed such equipment.

“But the Baileyville Utilities District is in the process of treating the problem of dissolved calcium, and we don’t foresee the need for filtering the water in the future,” he said.

Dineen’s statement about the influence of the Domtar Inc. pulp and paper mill led Clukey to say: “I don’t even know where to start with that one.” Because the wells are upstream from the mill, Clukey said, the mill has never had an impact on the town’s water supply.