x AUGUSTA – A former legislator is pushing for a citizen initiative to impose a 20-cent per gallon tax on groundwater extracted from Maine for sale as bottled water.

Jim Wilfong said other states have similar fees on resources such as oil, natural gas and timber, but he is unaware of any state royalties involving drinking water.

Poland Spring, a division of Nestle Waters North America, is the largest bottler of water in Maine, but Wilfong said his proposal is not targeted at any specific company. Poland Spring has bottling plants in Poland and Hollis and has been looking at potential sites for a third plant.

Wilfong, leader of a group called H2O for ME, sought support for his proposal Thursday from state conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan and Gov. John Baldacci.

Wilfong said revenue from the extraction fee, which could run from $80 million to $100 million a year, would be invested in a Water Dividend Trust earmarked for loans to spur small-business development in Maine.

A portion of the money also would be used to monitor how much water is taken from Maine’s aquifers.

If at least 50,519 voter signatures are collected by Jan. 20, the proposal could go to the Legislature and to voters in 2005. Wilfong, who served two legislative terms during the 1970s, said volunteers are available to collect signatures on Election Day and afterward if needed.

He said a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizens’ group supporting the referendum drive has advocates in all Maine counties.

A letter sent to McGowan and copied to Baldacci asks them to review Maine’s current water-extraction policy and contracts, which Wilfong says allow the state to “squander” its most valuable resource, water.

It also asks the state officials to renegotiate an existing contract for the sale of water beneath state property so the state will be able to collect amounts comparable to those sought in the proposed initiative.

Nestle Waters North America is allowed to pump water from the Range Pond State Park area in Androscoggin County for the negotiated cost of a half-cent per gallon, according to Wilfong.

“This water payment fee borders on the laughable,” Wilfong, who compares the extraction of water from public land to removal of timber, says in his letter. “Maine citizens, as landowners, deserve a fair price for their water.”

Nestle’s spokeswoman Jane Lazgin said her company is a relatively small user of water in Maine, and she’s perplexed why Nestle is targeted by the proposal.

“We think a tax of this magnitude would put a homegrown business at a competitive disadvantage to out-of-state soft-drink companies,” said Lazgin.

Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey said the governor was still reviewing the letter, but in general he’s opposed to the idea of a water extraction fee.

“He recognizes the importance of Poland Spring as a company in Maine and doesn’t want to jeopardize their ability to do business and provide employment for hundreds of Maine people,” said Umphrey.

Lazgin said Poland Spring has about 500 employees in the state.

McGowan did not immediately answer a message left with his office.

Wilfong’s letter acknowledges that the Range Pond contract was negotiated during a previous administration.

Proposals to tax water extracted in Maine surfaced late in the legislative session this spring as lawmakers searched for new revenues, but no action was taken.

A Water Resource Conservation Board that would be created through the proposed referendum would ensure that water supplies in Maine are sustained.

In July, Poland Spring’s plan to draw up to 80 million gallons of water a year from an aquifer near Flagstaff Lake was challenged in a suit filed in Somerset County Superior Court.

Citizens for Protection of Maine’s Groundwater challenged a decision by the Land Use Regulation Commission to grant a permit to Nestle Waters to build a pumping station in Pierce Pond and Spring Lake townships in the unorganized territories.

The water would be bottled in Poland Spring’s plant in Hollis.