Planners OK water district shoreland zoning permit in 15 minutes

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members needed only a quarter-hour-long July 23 meeting to approve the Kennebec Water District’s application for a shoreland zoning permit on Outlet Stream near the KWD plant on Route 32.

KWD General Manager Roger Crouse and Water Quality Manager Robbie Bickford had presented the plan to the select board in June (see the June 20 issue of The Town Line, p. 3). They filed a planning board application that Bickford and Project Engineer Max Kenney reviewed briefly at the July 23 meeting.

The permit is for a pipeline under Route 32, from the plant on the west side of the road, that will carry used filter-cleaning water into Outlet Stream. Bickford and Kenney explained that KWD needs to dig up the road and wants to do it before the Maine Department of Transportation rebuilds parts of it and repaves this summer.

“We just need to be under the road before they pave it,” Kenney said. Waiting to dig up fresh pavement would be significantly more expensive.

To accent the point, MDOT crews were working on the road in front of the town office as the planning board met.

Tunneling was a less safe option than opening the pavement, Bickford said, because there are already under that section of road a water main, a sewer main and two fiberoptic cables.

KWD’s application provided detailed plans for the pipe, which will open into an outfall channel between Route 32 and Outlet Stream. Bickford explained to the planning board, as he had to the select board, that the water from the plant will add no contaminants and no significant volume to the stream; it might slightly increase the oxygen level, he said.

If China Lake and Outlet Stream were to flood again, KWD could reduce its discharge, he said, and being completely underwater would not harm the discharge channel.

Planning board members conditioned their unanimous approval on receiving for their files a copy of the easement allowing KWD to cross the lot between the road and the stream. Bickford promised it.

Since Vassalboro is now without a codes officer, Town Manager Aaron Miller filled in as secretary for the planning board. He said David Savage, from Oakland, is assisting with essential codes enforcement duties while Vassalboro seeks applicants to fill the position. The arrangement is working well, he said.

The next regular Vassalboro planning board meeting will be Tuesday evening, Aug. 6. Miller said as of July 23, there was one pending application.