By Stephanie Grinnell

Staff Writer

The Poland Spring Bottling Company in Hollis has applied to the town and with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to amend its conditional use permit to allow disposal of wastewater through spray irrigation on their Killick Pond Road property. 

According to the application filed with the planning board in Hollis, the proposal will reduce tanker truck transportation of the wastewater by more than 1,400 tanker loads during the peak season of mid-May through late September. The application states 26 acres have been designated for wastewater irrigation. 

Wastewater not used for irrigation will continue being trucked to Old Orchard Beach for disposal. The company has had a contract with Old Orchard Beach since 2001 that allows it to truck wastewater to the town’s treatment plant for disposal. Poland Spring pays 6 cents per 1,000 gallon of wastewater, or $39 per 6,500 gallon tanker truck, Old Orchard Beach Wastewater Superintendent Christopher White said. He said the wastewater is mostly rinse water that may contain some cleaners. 

There are between 14 and 16 trucks per day arriving during the summer, White said. 

“The big thing is the trucks, the traffic and the noise, and they do come 24/7,” he said. 

He said he is not sure what the impact to Old Orchard Beach will be with fewer tankers of wastewater being treated.

“There are still a lot of details that need to be worked out,” he said. 

Hollis Code Enforcement Officer Peter Gordon said he reviewed the application before sending it to the planning board, which will have the final say about the application. The Hollis Planning Board is expected to address the application at the May 27 meeting, he said.

Gordon said the company provides a chemical breakdown of the minerals in the wastewater as well as a list of what crops can absorb the minerals. Poland Spring Natural Resource Manager Mark Dubois said the company has worked with the DEP to choose a grass that will absorb the minerals from the processed water. The grass will be removed at the end of the growing season to prevent the minerals from going back into the groundwater supply, Dubois said.

“The benefit (to Poland Spring) is in terms of economics,” he said. “This will offset trucking, around 10 trucks per day.”

Dubois said a total of 1,400 trucks would not have to make trips to Old Orchard Beach during the summer months, saving on costs of diesel. He noted the wastewater being sprayed on the field will not be sewage, he said it will be water used for cooling the plant and rinsing.

The water sprayed on the fields will not be drawn back into the plant because there are different aquifers in the area, Dubois said. 

He said there is an additional application to increase the amount of water drawn from the four utility wells on the site. Currently, Poland Spring is permitted to withdraw 16 million gallons of water per year from the wells. Dubois said the company shuts down the wells for six months of the year, once the 16 million gallon limit has been reached, and trucks in water from the Biddeford Saco Water District and the Auburn Water District. The water from the wells is used for sinks, toilets and cooling. Dubois said the application seeks to increase the permitted amount of water to 50 million gallons per year, which would save the company an additional 1,000 truck trips per year. 

“They are two separate applications but we are hoping to see them reviewed at the same time,” he said. 

Dubois said more water is needed to cool the plant in the warmer months and compared the inside of the plant to a car’s radiator.

“The plant uses water like a car radiator, if it’s hot, it evaporates faster,” he said. 

Dubois said an acre of land in Maine typically collects 1 million gallons of water per year and said the water the company is asking to withdraw would be the equivalent of 50 acre’s worth of rainfall.

Poland Spring Bottling Company has an 840,000 square foot bottling facility on the 1,500 acre property in Hollis, where water is processed, bottles are molded and product is warehoused in addition to offices.

According to the amended application, there are 20 acres of pavement on the site.  

Gordon said there will be a public hearing and site walk before the application is approved or denied by the planning board.