In a Victory for Poland Spring, Maine Rejects New Groundwater Limits
The bottled-water company last year tried to kill legislation aimed at protecting aquifers at a time when many are at risk nationally.
Maine’s Legislature voted down a bill that would have limited large-scale pumping of groundwater in the state. Poland Spring, the bottled-water giant, had lobbied aggressively against the measure.
The proposal would have placed a 10-year limit on large-scale water-extraction contracts, a restriction that the bill’s supporters said would protect Maine’s precious groundwater at a time when water levels are falling across the country. It failed to pass on Thursday by a 21-to-12 vote in the State Senate.
Poland Spring, a major presence in Maine, draws water from eight locations around the state to bottle and sell. It is trying to lock in a new contract of up to 45 years to pump water in Lincoln, a former mill town.
BlueTriton — which owns Poland Spring and other major bottled-water brands, including Arrowhead and Deer Park — lobbied against the changes. Last year, The New York Times reported that the company wrote, and circulated among legislators, a proposed amendment that would have gutted the bill.
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