Maine News Site Looks Back at 2008: Poland Springs, Water Issue Top List

Maine’s Seacoast online looks at the top stories of 2008, and not surprisingly, Nestle Water, Poland Spring and thei related water issues led the list:

When word got out this summer that the Kennebunk Kennebunkport Wells Water District was thinking of selling up to 432,000 gallons of water a day to Nestle/Poland Springs, the reaction was immediate and largely negative.

Opponents organized themselves into a group called Save Our Water, held rallies and meetings, and soon garnered the attention of the national media. They called upon the water district trustees to vote the sale down, and argued that the KKWWD would be giving away the community’s precious natural resources.

Water issues elsewhere in Maine were also mentionedt:

At the November election in Wells, voters approved a question that called for a temporary moratorium on large scale water extraction, to give the town sufficient time to create a permanent ordinance dealing with the subject. The question resulted from a citizen’s initiative. In Ogunquit, voters approved a question favoring a prohibition on the sale of water by KKWWD for resale as bottled water. That question also resulted from a citizen’s petition.

It’s tempting to classify the Kennebunk mess as yet another case of Nestle/Poland Spring trying to quietly spirit away a lot of water – and getting nabbed in the process by the citizenry – but despite a great deal of protest, the issue isn’t yet settled:

Some, though, think the time may be coming soon for the water discussion to begin in Kennebunk again.

“I don’t think the issue is dead,” said Kennebunk Town Manager Barry Tibbetts. “More public discourse needs to happen.”

vLet’s hope the public is included in any discussion – and that Nestle/Poland Spring don’t unfairly influence that discussion with their big-dollar PR firms, misleading advertising, and nasty habit of spreading just enough dollars around small rural towns to factionalize the community.