'Beating dead horse': Kittery Water District shuts down worries of chloramines, land sale

Kittery Water District users concerned about the future of the district's drinking water and land have called for the quasi-municipal district to place it’s 2,500 acres of watershed in a conservation easement.

A special meeting of the water district was held Wednesday night in response to a petition which claimed that the district could be consolidated with other public water utilities that use chloramines to disinfect water. The Kittery Water District has affirmed it would not use chloramines nor merge with other water companies.

Founded in 1907, the Kittery Water District is free of municipal oversight but is headquartered in Kittery. Its customers are in Kittery, Kittery Point, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and in portions of Eliot and York.

The petition caused a stir by indicating the Kittery Water District could be bought by Maine Water Company and its parent group, which the petitioner claimed would cause district user rates to triple.

The Kittery Water District is governed by five trustees and a superintendent, all of whom were present for the virtual meeting to field questions and concerns from nearly 100 attendees. John Perry, president of the district’s board of trustees, stated the discussion surrounding the worry of chloramines being used to treat district water is “beating a dead horse.”

“Understand, we have no intentions on the board of (trustees) of the Kittery Water District to use chloramines as our primary treatment,” he said. “It’s like a broken record.”

In June 2019, the district’s then-board of trustees publicly announced the district would not utilize chloramine treatment at that point or in the future. The disinfectant is approved for treatment of drinking water up to certain levels by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Kittery Water District treats its water with chlorine. The meeting Wednesday included a point-by-point refutation of claims made by the petition.

Petition makes claims

Drafted by district customer Evalyn Sorrentino last month, the petition received 28 signatures, surpassing the 10 required by Kittery Water District bylaws for a special meeting to be held. Her petition specifically stated the Kittery Water District needs to discuss withdrawing from the Southern Maine Regional Water Council, a seven-member public water utility group which serves a combined 350,000 state residents across 25 municipalities.

Sorrentino wrote that the council’s “purpose is to commingle water of various regions who use chloramines and therefore would imply the KWD would also do the same.”

Maine Water Company, a fellow Southern Maine Regional Water Council member, is owned by Delaware-based SJW (San Jose Water) Group, which operates four subsidiary water companies in California, Connecticut, Maine and Texas. When SJW Group formed in 1985, it was a California corporation, though its name changed in 2016.

“One of the influencing members of (the Southern Maine Regional Water Council), SJW, is a major corporation whose mission is to purchase and consolidate small water utilities of Maine, and develop wetlands (owned) by small water utilities under their portfolio of subsidiaries owned,” the petition says.

“SJW has been aggressive in efforts to meet their portfolio goals. The KWD offices should not adopt a billing system that dovetails directly into the systems of SJW, the owner of The Maine Water Co., who is handling Saco water,” it continues. “Our rates will triple if we are purchased by SJW. This should be a decision made by the KWD users.”

Maine Water Company leader denies petition's claims

Rick Knowlton, president of Maine Water Company, was on hand to refute points of the petition. He shared that Maine Water Company systems in Saco and Biddeford since the 1930’s have used a blend of chlorine and ammonia to disinfect its water but assured that the company does not wish to purchase the Kittery Water District.

“Neither Maine Water Company, nor our parent company, San Jose Water Group, have any goal or ambition whatsoever to acquire the Kittery Water District, to develop its watershed land, or to be involved in the business affairs of the Kittery Water District in any way,” he said.

Knowlton said the petition suggests that Maine Water Company is affiliated with the Kittery Water District in a manner of “influence and control,” whereas in reality it is just a fellow “dues paying" Southern Maine Regional Water Council member.

Prior to the district’s special meeting, Knowlton wrote a letter to the board of trustees responding to the "false and misleading statements" in the petition regarding the Maine Water Company.

Sorrentino correctly noted in her petition that the Kittery Water District removed a message of commitment to not use chloramines in its water treatment from its website, which alarmed some water users and caused them to feel the district may be reconsidering that pledge. District board of trustee Robert Gray confirmed it was taken off the website but only so language can be updated and soon placed back on the website with the same commitment.

Meeting attendee Cameron Wake was the first to call for the district’s expansive watershed land to be placed in a conservation easement in perpetuity.

“Conservation easement deeds are flexible documents which allow tailoring to each property and its situation. The land would remain owned and managed by the district, the… purpose being to prevent development,” he said.

Many signaled support for the proposal, including Sorrentino. “I would think that anyone who truly loves this land and truly loves the Kittery Water District and it’s 2,500 acres… that you’d want to preserve this for our children and our grandchildren and our future generations,” she said.

Wake also questioned each trustee if they would guarantee that they would never vote to sell Kittery Water District lands and infrastructure to a private entity. All five — Perry, Gray, Julia O’Connell, James Golter and Julie Pelkey — stated they wouldn’t ever vote to do so.

“I would never be in favor of selling off any of our watershed,” Gray said. “I don’t know where the idea came from that people thought that we were going to sell it for development.”

Pelkey commented, “As far as I am concerned, selling off any of our property, the watershed property, is nowhere near on my radar, either.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kittery Water District shuts down worries of chloramines, land sale