If you’ve been keeping up on the ongoing Allagash Wilderness Waterway debate, you may want to take a few hours off this afternoon to attend a public hearing that will deal with many pertinent issues.

The Allagash Wilderness Waterway working group will hold a meeting today from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., and a video conference will link spectators – many of whom may wish to make public comment – at four locations across the state.

Your options:

. In Orono, at the University of Maine, Room 5A of Chadbourne Hall;

. In Augusta, at the University of Maine at Augusta, Room 40 in the lower level of the Bernard Katz Library;

. In Fort Kent, at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, Room 114B of Nadeau Hall;

. In Portland, at the University of Southern Maine, Room 304E of Payson Smith Hall.

In its draft recommendations on the Allagash, the working group points out that common ground on Allagash issues can sometimes be difficult to find.

“The vehemence of the rhetoric and the persistence of sniping suggest that there is something ‘under the skin’ of virtually every constituency,” the draft report says, calling for “coherent, transparent and effective leadership to build public confidence and mutually supportive action to care for and enhance this extraordinary public natural resource.”

Vehement? Yes. Sniping? You bet.

And as today’s hearing plays out, it’ll be interesting to see how the four-site format works out. My bet: Not too good.

In one corner, you see, will be the folks of the St. John Valley and Allagash itself, who will likely flock to Fort Kent to make themselves heard.

Through the power of modern technology, they’ll likely be squaring off against conservationists hundreds of miles away from the Allagash, who will gather in buildings in Augusta and Portland, as well as Bangor.

This Allagash debate, it’s important to note, has a history of devolving into the age-old Two-Maine manure-throwing contest.

To those up north, southern Mainers sometimes seem like they’re trying to dictate policy from afar.

To those down south, northern Mainers are being overly provincial, and don’t realize the special protection their river gem needs.

Add in the added constituent groups that needn’t be based on any geographic constraints – conservationist vs. preservationist, traditional access proponent vs. limited access supporter, consumptive user vs. wildlife watcher – and throw in the National Wild and Scenic Waterways Act just to spice up the melange, and you can see a few potential problems brewing.

Utilizing technological advances is a great idea … in theory. But as today’s hearing develops, with comments from each site being beamed into the other geographically diverse meeting rooms, here’s one thing I’d wager on:

The good folks of Allagash and the St. John Valley will leave their UMFK hearing room having listened to exactly what they’ve been complaining about for years: A bunch of people from southern Maine, telling them exactly why the local northern perspective on a northern Maine river is short-sighted and wrong.

The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is, by definition, a national treasure.

But northern Mainers can be forgiven for still thinking of it as their river.

When it floods, the Moosetowners of Allagash deal with it. When the ice jams, it’s a news story in Portland. Up there, it’s real life … and they deal with that, too.

When someone needs a hot meal or a warm bed after 10 days on the river, or gets lost in the woods around the waterway while hunting, the help doesn’t come from Portland, Allagash residents will remind you.

It often comes from Moosetowners.

Most of those who will gather in Fort Kent today realize that. But if the video conference debate from other locales begins following the age-old, “We know what’s best for you” path, you can bet the Moosetowners will feel angered and slighted. Again.

Can’t say that I blame them.

It seems to me that if the working group is trying to build consensus and increase public confidence, setting up a hearing whereby northern Mainers may watch concrete proof of that long-suspected southern bias (on TV, no less) isn’t the best first step.

Of course, when it comes to debating the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, it seems that there’s never a best first step.

Just an endless selection of painful ones.

Putting all of the constituent groups in one physical place, and not linking them by a video conference that clearly defines their geographic differences from the get-go, however, might be he most productive choice.

It also might be the most painful one of all.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.