BANGOR – Six days and 27 witnesses later, the friends and foes of a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Penjajawoc Marsh rested their cases before the Board of Environmental Protection on Tuesday.

The board will reconvene in Augusta on Oct. 3 to begin its deliberations on the 224,000-square-foot Supercenter on the corner of Gilman Road and Stillwater Avenue.

The project, now three years in the bureaucratic pipeline, prompted an uproar among local environmentalists who contend the massive store and its 13-acre parking lot would disrupt the wildlife in and around the nearby wetland.

In her closing arguments Tuesday afternoon at the Spectacular Event Center, the lawyer for the project’s New York-based developer, Widewaters-Stillwater LLC, said the project would do nothing of the sort.

“We can all agree that the Penjajawoc Marsh and the surrounding fields are very special,” said Augusta attorney Ginger Davis, echoing the testimony of a panel of wildlife experts. “But through conservation efforts, the developer in this case has engaged in an unprecedented effort to protect these values.”

Maine Audubon Society attorney Jamie Kilbreth countered that the developer’s offer to mitigate an intrusion into the 250-foot buffer zone around the marsh was “woefully inadequate” considering the massive scale of the development and its proximity to one of the state’s most precious wetlands.

“Whatever else is true here is that they’re going to pave over about 30 acres of valuable wildlife habitat,” Kilbreth said, although the entire project is about 18 acres. “To say there’s no undue impact is ridiculous.”

There’s little love lost between the project’s friends and foes, both of whom are equally zealous in their positions and critical of their opponents.

The Bangor Wal-Mart project has been tied up in court and in state regulatory boards for years, raising doubts about the “Coming Soon” sign that has stood on the edge of the Widewaters parcel for ages.

While Widewaters and the Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development – another of the project’s opponents – still are battling in the courtroom, the conclusion of testimony before the BEP marked the latest milestone in the heated battle over the Supercenter.

This week’s testimony centered on whether the sound and light from the Wal-Mart project would harm the area’s wildlife, which includes several bird species on the state’s threatened or endangered lists.

In her testimony before the board, Maine Audubon wildlife ecologist Judy Jones said the project would displace a number of bird species in the upland hayfield near the marsh. She said the developer’s plan to compensate for the impact by purchasing about 28 acres north of the railroad bed that cuts through the marsh was not enough.

“We would have liked to have seen a broader initiative,” said Jones, later explaining that the parcel targeted by Widewaters for conservation was not among the most valuable in the area.

Widewaters spokesman Kevin Kane discounted Jones’ assertions, noting that state wildlife officials – once among the project’s opponents – have given their blessing to the conservation plan.

“We went well beyond anything they asked us to do and IF&W deemed it to be appropriate,” said Kane, noting that the mitigation plan sought to conserve 28 acres rather than the recommended 9 acres to compensate for the 1.27-acre intrusion into the wetland buffer.

During his closing, Jeff Thaler, an attorney for two area landowners associated with the project, asked the board to apply its narrowly defined standards to the plan, despite its political overtones.

While conclusion of testimony – which stretched out over three months – prompted sighs of relief from all involved, it by no means marked the end to the dispute.

After next week’s deliberations, the BEP will receive a draft recommendation from Department of Environmental Protection staff sometime in the next month.

Any decision, which could come as soon as November, likely will prompt an appeal to Superior Court, further delaying any potential construction, sources close to the proceedings say.