WELLS — With a vote set for Saturday on a controversial water extraction ordinance, supporters and opponents are both urging Wells voters to get to the polls.
A special Town Meeting is set for 9 a.m. Saturday at Wells Elementary School. Only one issue will be considered: Whether to enact the Wells Water Rights Ordinance.
This citizens’ initiative has aroused opposition from the local and state business community, and scorn from some lawyers. But advocates say it is the only way to protect the town’s water resources.
At a Wells Chamber of Commerce forum Wednesday, Gail Darrell of Barnstead, N.H., said citizens must assert their rights because water-bottling companies are prepared to sweep aside municipal regulations.
“Your right to control your water supply can be taken from you once Nestlé Waters, North America, comes in,” she said.
But former selectman Robert Foley argued that the Wells Water Rights proposal has been called unconstitutional by the attorney general’s office and the town’s attorney. “Enacting this is going to put us in jeopardy,” he said.
The concern over water rights was raised last year when Poland Spring, a Nestlé subsidiary, sought a deal to extract water on the property of the local water district. But participants in Wednesday’s forum said the most troubling provision is one that seeks to strip corporations of some rights provided by federal law.
Jake Wolterbeek, owner of the Hayloft Restaurant and Jake’s Seafood Restaurant, said he feared it would strip every corporation in Wells, from daycare centers to Hannaford supermarket, of their liability protection.
“There’s very little about water management. A huge amount is about redefining business,” he said
The town attorney for Wells, Leah B. Rachin, cited the section on corporations as one of the main defects in the proposal. On her advice, selectmen refused to schedule a vote on the citizens’ proposal. Petitioners then bypassed the board and scheduled a vote on their own.
A concern was also raised by the water district. In a statement distributed at the forum, trustees of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District said the proposed ordinance would make it a criminal offense for the water district to sell water to customers outside of Wells.
Darrell, the only speaker called upon to defend the proposal, said the provisions against corporations are intended to help the town protect its resources, and would not affect the liability protections on which small business owners rely.
“I would like to dispel those fears,” she said.
The approach is modeled on one that was developed as Nottingham, N.H. tried to regulate a water bottler.
“They now have a rights-based ordinance in place and no more problems. It hasn’t been challenged,” she said.
The Wells proposal asserts the right of residents as well as “natural communities and ecosystems” to tap into natural water cycles. It seeks to make violations of the ordinance a criminal offense and raises the possibility of a standoff with county, state or federal government.
Saturday’s meeting will be an open Town Meeting at which the ordinance may be debated, but not amended, Foley said. According to the language of the proposed ordinance, it will take effect immediately, if enacted.
If it is not enacted, the town’s ordinance review committee hopes to have an ordinance regulating water extraction ready for review next month.
“It’s a responsible ordinance and a fair ordinance and I think it will protect our water,” said committee chairman William Gosbee during the forum.
— Nick Cowenhoven can be reached at ncowenhoven@journaltribune.com.
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