Bill enacted to alter water extraction rules

AUGUSTA – With little public notice, the Legislature has enacted a bill to increase scrutiny and apply more uniform regulations for commercial water extractions in Maine.

The bill addresses many of the concerns of the H2O for ME campaign, which sought to initiate a referendum that initially called for a first-in-the-nation tax on large-scale water extractions by companies that sell bottled water.

The legislation, which awaited Gov. John Baldacci’s signature on Thursday, resulted from collaboration by the H2O group and clean drinking water activists, Nestle Waters North America, parent of Poland Spring and other bottled-water brands, and the Baldacci administration, said Rep. Theodore Koffman, who co-chairs the committee that brought together the negotiators.

“There were a few pleasant surprises in the Natural Resources Committee this session, and this was one of them,” said Koffman, D-Bar Harbor. “The [water] interests and adversaries were able to get together and get their needs met.”

Koffman said the measure would require a more thorough and more public process for reviewing permit applications for commercial water extractions.

It also puts in place a comprehensive watershed and drinking water well management program under the state Natural Resources Protection Act, which means decisions about water use are reviewed through a uniform and more detailed process, said Koffman.

The legislation also ensures that commercial water extractions are regulated with their impact on the whole watershed in mind, and sets sustainability standards.

“Maine now has a firm foundation of groundwater law on which to build,” said James Wilfong, founder of H2O for ME. Wilfong said Nestle Waters North America, which was once a target of his referendum effort, played a constructive role in designing the bill.

“Is it everything we wanted? No, but it goes a long way environmentally,” Wilfong said.

Nestle Waters offered no comment when contacted.

H2O for ME’s referendum campaign fell short of signatures it needed in 2005 to force a referendum, but it was in the process of circulating petitions again when the water extraction bill was deliberated. That campaign will be disbanded now that the bill is passed, said Wilfong.

A companion bill extends protections for drinking water wells. Koffman said an area of at least 250 feet around a well would be given special protection from activities that could affect water quality. Those activities also will be subject to a formal review.

The need for the law was articulated by the Portland Water District, which cited its own experience with inadequate well protections. It pointed to a case in 1998 in which wells serving its North Windham system were contaminated by fuel additive MTBE from a service station that was allowed to be too close to the wells.

Other major pieces of environmental legislation enacted during this year’s session include authorization for the state to join a regional effort to control greenhouse gas emissions and a phase-out of the use of fire-retardant chemicals that are considered a health threat.