U.S. Water News Online
PROSPECT, Maine -- Attorneys with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are investigating a nearly $2 million loan-grant that has erupted into a full-fledged water feud between the Maine towns of Searsport and Prospect.
The Rural Economic Community Development service (RECD), formerly known as the Farmers Home Administration, in 1993 approved a $1.6 million loan and $300,000 grant to the Searsport Water District to convert from a reservoir system to a groundwater supply. While the detailed reasons remain unclear, the Searsport district drilled a well within the city limits of nearby Prospect. Only when Prospect obtained engineering and survey reports did residents learn the well was actually a few hundred feet over the town line. While the water district acknowledged the error, it claimed that the drilling was an honest mistake.
A resulting public controversy over the siting of the well prompted Prospect to enact an ordinance prohibiting the commercial export of its groundwater. Earlier this year, however, the Searsport district was granted a special petition in the state legislature to expand its groundwater rights into the town limits of Prospect.
Prospect subsequently has appealed to the RECD for a ruling on the application of federal funding.
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