The length and level of dissent at the recent hearings on Wal-Mart Supercenter development in Bangor suggests the Board of Environmental Protection had a sweeping decision to make about the future of the state’s wildlife and habitat, in addition to tackling the trend of cut-rate consumerism in warehouse stores. Actually, state officials have a fairly small question to answer; the big questions will be left with Bangor.

The BEP, which begins deliberations today, must decide whether the Wal-Mart developer meets state environmental regulations for putting a store and parking lot adjacent to the Penjajawoc Marsh. Even more narrowly, as one staff member of the Department of Environmental Protection commented, it will decide merely if the store’s detention pond has been adequately mitigated.

The pond, where rain run-off from the store and lot collect as a protection from flooding and for water quality, would sit within the required 250-foot setback from the Penjajawoc Stream, so the state needs to determine whether it would cause unreasonable harm. As compensation for any harm, the Widewaters Group, which is developing the 224,000-square-foot store and 13-acre parking lot, has proposed a substantial development easement on nearby land. Although this sort of mitigation is more commonly used to compensate for the destruction of wetlands, it was important in this case because it protected areas that eventually would be developed if the rest of the mall area is an indication and because the mitigation sets a standard for future development. Significantly, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said that if Widewaters met the conditions outlined in the easement, the plan offered “sufficient compensation for the wildlife habitat loss and wildlife impacts of the Penjajawoc Marsh.”

Many people in the Bangor area, of course, believe there is no sufficient compensation for siting a huge store and parking lot in an important natural area. Theirs would be a fair argument if the state had a track record of putting nature ahead of development. But the many precedents and the intention of the rules the BEP must follow point toward another oversize store.

To reject it is to say the state ruled incorrectly on many other projects over many years. The BEP has no reason to do this and, absent shockingly new information, should support the developer in this case.

But that’s not the end of it. Widewaters finally must return to the Bangor Planning Board, which rejected the development before the mitigation was offered. The board says it already accepts that the development’s parking, access, screening, landscaping, exterior display, etc., meet the required standards but that its detention pond would have a significant negative impact on the marsh.

The underlying problem, however, is not just whether the marsh would be hurt but what the city is to do with its success in attracting warehouse and mall stores to this area. It already has turned Hogan Road into a traffic disaster and could end up doing the same with Stillwater. Certainly, the amount of work performed by the grass-roots group BACORD (Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development) has demonstrated that the city’s plan to add another road, through the marsh, is unacceptable.

The individual acts of paving and building in this area with minimal regard to wildlife and its habitat have accumulated to the point that additional development there poses serious concern. That means the city must go further in reassessing its comprehensive plan, something it has done recently but not sufficiently. It is an issue that with or without a new Wal-Mart will get worse until addressed.