AUGUSTA — A planned merger of the Gardiner and Hallowell water districts won’t move forward this year because of a political fight about century-old rights to water nobody drinks in a town the districts don’t serve.
Concern about the merger is coming from West Gardiner, where some have been concerned that the plan would allow the new district to take drinking water from Cobbosseecontee Stream from points outside the district. However, both districts have had that right since they were established — in 1895 in Hallowell and 1903 in Gardiner — and neither district takes water from the stream now.
The utilities, which serve 4,100 customers in Gardiner, Hallowell, Farmingdale and Randolph, hoped to get the Legislature’s approval to take the merger to local voters in November. That bill, sponsored by Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, passed in the House of Representatives in June; but it was tabled and killed in the Senate by co-sponsor Sen. Earle McCormick, R-West Gardiner, who is also a West Gardiner selectman.
Gregory Couture, the town’s head selectman, testified against the bill on his board’s behalf in April, saying the bill shouldn’t allow the district to cross its borders and use land or dams in other communities to take water.
“If they’re not going to use it, why have the language in there?” he said in an interview. “That’s our contention, that’s all.”
But Frank O’Hara, a consultant for the water districts, said while it’s unlikely that a new district ever would draw from the stream, district leaders think they have a duty to keep rights to that water supply.
“They think that they have a responsibility to future generations that they’re not giving up authority to get water where it might be needed,” he said.
The issue has divided the local legislative delegation. Warren said McCormick didn’t tell her why he tabled the bill and called his move “really surprising,” saying it’s “not the way I do business, that is for sure.”
For more than a week, McCormick didn’t return a reporter’s phone messages seeking comment. When approached on Thursday at the State House, he was mostly silent, repeatedly saying the bill “needs more work.” Asked if he shared Couture’s concerns, he said no, but he didn’t specify.
“We’ll deal with it later,” McCormick said, declining to comment further.
District leaders have said a combined district would provide administrative efficiencies and more stable rates for customers. The districts have been studying a merger since 2009 and have cooperated for years. A purchase-and-sale agreement for water is already in place, and they share labor and equipment for repairs and other tasks. Hallowell also contracted with Gardiner for another employee to monitor natural gas expansion last year. That won’t change now that the bill has failed, O’Hara said.
“Both districts are committed to working with each other,” he said. “That decision’s already been made.”
Now they’ll have to pursue a merger in 2016. Both O’Hara and Couture said communication between the parties was faulty. Couture said the selectmen rejected a request from O’Hara to give them information on the plan because they thought they knew enough about it already. O’Hara said he hopes to talk to McCormick this summer to “see what he’s thinking.”
Gardiner Mayor Thomas Harnett called the merger’s hang-up “frustrating,” because he often hears state officials and lawmakers pushing for cities and towns to regionalize services.
“Here’s an effort with multiple communities to do that, and it gets held up for some reason that hasn’t been communicated to me as mayor,” he said.
Michael Shepherd — 370-7652
Twitter: @mikeshepherdme
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