Bayside residents OK water main extension

NORTHPORT – It appears that residents of Bayside will soon be rid of the arsenic-contaminated well water that has plagued them for years.

Residents attending this week’s annual meeting of the Northport Village Corp. voted overwhelmingly to borrow up to $500,000 to extend water mains to the section of the village with contaminated wells. Connecting to the public water system will eliminate the need to draw water from the wells.

Approximately 125 voters attended Tuesday’s meeting, and most voted in support of the borrowing plan. About two dozen voted against the project.

“It passed by an overwhelming majority,” Shore Road resident Galen Plummer said Thursday. “There were some concerns expressed by certain people who were against it, but the majority prevailed.”

Plummer said those opposed to the project were concerned about having to share the cost of the water project while not receiving its benefits. Many of the properties in Bayside village already are served by a public water supply.

Bayside is a waterfront enclave that was incorporated as a separate unit of the town in the early 1900s. It has its own management structure separate from that of Northport. Besides paying property taxes as part of Northport, Bayside residents also pay taxes levied by the village corporation for roads, recreation and public utilities.

Arsenic was detected in wells along the Shore and Bluff roads a few years ago. Although the area is served by a seasonal waterline during the summer, year-round residents must resort to using bottled water throughout the winter.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that is a deadly poison linked to a number of cancers in less-concentrated forms. University of Maine researchers have determined that arsenic in the bedrock beneath the village is the source of the contaminated well water.

Testing undertaken since the initial discovery of arsenic in 1998 revealed that 95 percent of the area’s wells were contaminated with dangerous levels of the poison. On average, the contamination was 60 times the accepted level. One well in Kelly Cove tested 500 times above the Environmental Protection Agency-approved level of 10 parts per billion.

Plummer said the $500,000 represented the village corporation’s portion of an estimated $900,000 project. He said residents were banking on obtaining a Community Development Block Grant to make up the balance of the project cost. He said if the CDBG application is successful, the project would get under way next spring.

Approximately 104 of the village’s 347 properties will benefit from the expanded water system.

If approved, the project would extend the existing year-round waterline along the Shore Road beginning at Sea Street to the village boundary. The Bluff Road would be served from the south side of Kelly Cove to the village boundary.

Financing of the project could add as much as $65 or as little as $35 to the $380 annual base water rate for Bayside residents. Rates are also adjusted based on water usage. Year-round customers pay an average $160 for water usage and summer residents pay about $40. The Belfast Water District is the source of Bayside’s water.

Besides providing a reliable source of water for residents, the project also will solve Bayside’s historic problems with dry wells and low water pressure.

“Now we’ve got to come up with funds from CDBG, and we’re off and running,” Plummer said. “Then we can bring some quality water to contaminated wells and good water to other bad water wells and dry wells.”