KINGFIELD — Poland Spring is finalizing its plan to expand operations at its local bottling plant, activating a third line to the two lines already in operation and hiring up to 20 more people.
Wright-Pierce engineer Jon Edgerton and representatives of the Kingfield Poland Spring bottling plant met with the Planning Board earlier this month to discuss preliminary plans for an addition to the 203,000-square-foot building.
In 2006, Nestle Waters North America was granted necessary permits and approvals to construct an expandable plant. Four bottling lines were permitted, but only two were put in when the building was constructed. The planned 40- by 65-foot expansion will hold equipment and machinery necessary to run a third line.
A 52-foot resin silo for manufacturing plastic bottles is also part of the expansion.
Edgerton noted the plant was already permitted for four lines. “The components of this permit application are the building addition and the silo,” he said.
Planning Board member Emmett Mahoney raised concerns over the amount of water extracted from the Bradbury Aquifer, the main source of water bottled at the Kingfield plant. The 2006 permit allows for 200 million gallons per year to be extracted. So far this year, Poland Spring has extracted 179 million gallons for bottling in Kingfield and transporting to other plants.
Mahoney asked how much extracted water was trucked to other plants during a drought that heavily affected southern Maine earlier this year. Board Chairman Clay Tranten noted one of the conditions of the original permit was that at least 55 percent of the amount of groundwater extracted on an annual basis is earmarked for the two-line Kingfield plant.
“With another line, we can change that number to 75 or 80 percent,” Tranten said.
“We are not looking for any changes in the extraction quantities. If anything, more will be bottled here,” Edgerton said.
He said the initial meeting with the board was to get direction for the building permit. “We are expanding. What do you need for approval? What do we need to do to complete the application process?” he asked.
Tranten noted, “You are not changing anything we have not already approved. You are just adding on.”
The board requested a detailed site plan and a statement on groundwater extraction quantities. Edgerton and Poland Spring representatives plan to present the board with a completed building permit application at the next meeting.
The plant employs 67 people full time. If necessary permit approvals are obtained, as many as 20 new full-time jobs will be created, noted Poland Spring spokeswoman Kathy Gerrard.
The Planning Board meets the second Tuesday of the month. The next meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, in Webster Hall.
Reprinted with permission of The Irregular.
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