Poland Spring wins Fryeburg court case
The state's highest court has ruled in favor of Poland Spring in a case over its efforts to build a water pumping station in Fryeburg.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday upheld a 2005 decision by the town's planning board to allow the plan, according to a press release from the company. The decision disappoints members of Western Maine Residents For Rural Living, a group that opposed the pumping station based on concerns about heavy truck traffic and other local impacts, the Portland Press Herald reported. The station would fill up to 50 trucks a day with water piped underground from aquifers in Denmark.
The court victory comes on the heels of votes in two other Maine towns, Shapleigh and Newfield, banning large-scale water extraction in light of Poland Spring's proposal to tap into an aquifer the towns share. The state Legislature also is considering more than a dozen bills targeting large-scale extraction of groundwater, including a proposed tax that would cost Poland Spring $7 million a year, the paper reported.
Poland Spring, a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America, pumps water from more than 20 wells in eight Maine communities and has bottling plants in Hollis, Poland Spring and Kingfield.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments