Poland Spring: Maine's Good Neighbor

Mark Dubois, a geologist for Poland Spring explains monitoring of the aquifer.

''The Lakes Region is an ideal location for another Poland Spring plant someday, though building projections have slowed due to the economy and weakening bottled water sales nationwide last year, Dubois says. But the company looks forward to performing well in the future. "We're hopeful that this brand is good and is something the consumer wants and needs," he says. Wilfong also looks to the future, 50 years ahead, when the debate about who should "take the waters" is sure to remain fervent. "It's water. That's a big issue," he says. "We can't live without water."
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   In 1845, when the Ricker family opened Maine's renowned Poland Spring resort, the aquifer's supposed healing properties drew sufferers of assorted maladies to "take the waters." Hiram Ricker, the original landowner's son, was convinced the spring water cured his chronic indigestion. Today, more than 160 years later, Poland Spring's association with taking the waters has a whole new meaning. As the bottled water producer, now under foreign ownership, expands its reach to nine locations in Maine, a whole host of concerns are bubbling up about large-scale commercial water extraction. The controversies — ranging from increased truck traffic to Europeans profiting from a local resource — often begin as discussions about local zoning rules but shift into heated discourse about Maine's identity on several fronts.

   Poland Spring's typical strategy for addressing public concerns — which officials say is rooted in accessibility and transparency — hit a wall in Fryeburg, the company's most recent ground zero. In this Oxford County town near the New Hampshire border, a vocal minority's opposition to a proposed pumping station gained traction before the facts could, according to Mark Dubois, natural resource manager for Poland Spring. "We want to be as clear as the water with any new community," he says from his Fryeburg office. "I think it's the way to operate in Maine."....

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