Activists challenge bottler’s permit

SKOWHEGAN – Activists opposed to the Poland Spring bottling company’s plan to draw up to 80 million gallons of water a year from an aquifer near Flagstaff Lake took their case to court Friday.

Opponents challenged last month’s decision by Maine’s wilderness zoning board to grant a permit to Nestle Waters, Poland Spring’s parent company, to build a pumping station in Pierce Pond and Spring Lake townships in the unorganized territories.

In its suit filed in Somerset County Superior Court, Citizens for Protection of Maine’s Groundwater said the Land Use Regulation Commission acted without precedent in issuing the permit without holding a public hearing.

The group also said LURC failed to conduct a full analysis of the project’s environmental, social and economic impact.

Poland Spring plans to haul water from the pumping station in tanker trucks to its bottling plant in Hollis.

The bottler has been evaluating potential sites in Somerset, Franklin and Oxford counties for a third bottling plant but does not expect to make a decision this year. The company’s oldest plant is in Poland.

Jonathan Carter of Lexington Township, the former Green Party gubernatorial candidate and spokesman for Citizens for Protection of Maine’s Groundwater, said the aquifer that Poland Spring plans to tap is located 1.3 miles east of Flagstaff Lake in the shadow of the Bigelow Preserve.

He said LURC failed to address public concerns such as potential damage to property values and the impact on recreational users of the Bigelow Preserve. He said the agency should have examined alternatives, such as a pipeline.