Poland Spring presents Cold Spring renewal; Denmark engineer finds application incomplete

Poland Spring representatives presented their renewal application for the Cold Spring large-scale water-extraction permit to the Denmark Select Board on June 30, asserting that operations have not caused adverse impacts and that no changes to permit conditions are requested.

Mark Dubois, senior natural resource manager for Poland Spring, introduced the team and said the company continues to monitor the Cold Spring aquifer with 19 monitoring wells, six pometers, five staff gauges, Long Pond monitoring, Beaverbrook flow monitoring and 10 domestic wells. "We have taken our charge here seriously. We've protected the aquifer. We've had no adverse impacts," Dubois said, describing monthly manual groundwater checks as his preferred monitoring approach.

Hydrogeologist Matt Reynolds of Drumland Environmental explained the site’s sand-and-gravel aquifer and presented pumping-test projections that show a localized cone of influence around Poland Spring’s two production boreholes. He also described new survey data indicating Long Pond’s water surface is typically higher than nearby groundwater, which Reynolds said means the pond generally leaks to groundwater rather than groundwater drawing the pond down.

Dan Diffen of CV Mahar Engineers summarized the decommissioning plan included in the application: remove above-ground structures, abandon and permanently seal boreholes (cut casing to 48 inches below grade), cut-and-cap underground pipes and conduits, restore the site with loam and seed, and leave buried pipeline segments in place after cutting and capping where appropriate. Diffen said the preliminary decommissioning cost estimate is about $102,760 and the plan would be triggered after 24 months of inactivity or if Poland Spring ceases operations.

Town technical reviewer Rick, identified by staff as the town’s technical engineer, said his preliminary completeness review found several required items missing or needing revision in the application. Rick asked Poland Spring to provide a month-by-month table showing the maximum monthly extraction rates (the ordinance requires maximum annual, monthly-by-month and 24-hour rates), fuller reference maps showing full aquifer extent, property boundaries and any easements or rights-of-way along pipeline routes, and additional discussion about potential impacts to nearby private wells and surrounding aquifers. He also noted that action and alert levels for some observation wells (MW3 and MW11) were revised in the applicant’s materials and flagged the need to tie those revisions to the methodology recommended by the town ordinance.

Select Board staff and Rick set a completeness-review target of July 14. If the application is deemed complete at that review, the board will schedule a public hearing (staff suggested approximately August 11, subject to scheduling). Rick and staff asked Poland Spring to submit the requested tables and maps as revised pages or an addendum to the application; Poland Spring agreed to provide updated materials within the town’s requested timeframe.

The town’s review emphasized the ordinance’s specific requirements (Chapter 4, Section 2 and related provisions) for hydrogeologic reporting, mapping and action/alert level justification. Poland Spring representatives said they relied on historical pumping tests and operational data collected since monitoring began in 2004 and said they had voluntarily reduced pumping during the recent drought. Reynolds and Dubois highlighted that springs continued flowing through drought conditions and that the monitoring network shows seasonal variability rather than a long-term downward trend.

Next steps: Poland Spring will submit revisions and supplementary figures to address the completeness comments; the Select Board’s completeness review is scheduled for July 14. If the board deems the application complete, the town will then open the public hearing process under the town ordinance.