RUMFORD — BlueTriton Brands Inc., formerly Nestle Waters North America, has purchased Puiia Business Park from the town, heightening hopes for a water bottling plant that would bring 40 to 50 jobs, Town Manager Stacy Carter said Friday.
The Board of Selectmen on Thursday approved the sale of 149 acres for $400,000. The site is off Route 108, near the Rumford Industrial Park, which has been vacant since it was established in 2002.
Nestle Waters is the parent company of Poland Spring Water Co.
“It’s excellent news,” Carter said. “We anticipate further good news that they’re going to build a water bottling plant, which will bring many good-paying jobs to the area. We hope to hear by the end of May that they’re going to go forward with the building … They haven’t yet given us a time frame.”
The railroad in the area is not part of the proposed project, Carter said, but it was a point Rumford Economic Development Director George O’Keefe has made. “There’s a lot of potential for that as a way for them to ship water,” Carter said.
The town plans to use the sale proceeds for another industrial park to attract more business, he said.
In August 2017, Poland Spring Water Co. signed a 15-year agreement with the Rumford Water District to draw up to 150 million gallons of water annually from two district wells. The 15-year agreement included a clause stating that five additional renewal terms of five years each would be contingent upon getting the bottling plant in Rumford.
Carter said the purchase follows two extensions of the purchase and sale agreement with Nestlé Waters North America over the past four years.
Mark Dubois, a Poland Spring hydrogeologist and the company’s natural resource manager, said in 2017 that the company was exploring the feasibility of such a project in Rumford. The company looked into mapping wetlands and conditions, access on foot and by vehicle, geology studies and depth of rock, feasibility and many other factors.
At the time, Dubois said if the company decided to build a bottling plant in Rumford, the water would be piped underground to the plant.
BlueTriton Brands owns a loading station near the Rumford-Hanover town line that receives water from the Ellis spring three miles away by pipeline.
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