SOH2O is dedicated to protecting fresh water supplies in the state of Maine. Our efforts are focused within our state and we work to prevent large scale water extraction, monitor our local water district, enact legislative protections for our water, and educate local communities to the importance of local control of our water.

Movers and Shakers 2009: Water rights groups
from the Seacoast Online, 1/7/10
WELLS — Opponents of large-scale water extraction made themselves loud and clear in 2009, enough so that it was hard not to take notice.

Although many residents expressed interest in the regulation of large-scale extraction via an ordinance, it was the water-rights activists who continued to publicly raise concerns about the future of the community if such an operation was to be conducted in Wells.

It was their persistence in reaching residents by maintaining a continued presence at public meetings and hearings; by hosting forums and writing letters; by engaging community members in grassroots efforts, that gave them the edge…Click here to read the rest of the article.

Poland Spring urged public officials to express support for water ordinance
from Seacoast Online, 11/19/09
WELLS — Poland Spring’s use of an overt advertising campaign to connect with voters before a widely-debated vote on Election Day wasn’t the only way the company sought support leading into a Nov. 3 referendum, according to records from the Wells Ordinance Review Committee.

The company’s Portland-based public relations firm, Barton & Gingold, also corresponded with town committee members to help bolster support for a large-scale water extraction ordinance that would have regulated any contract in town to withdraw water for bottling purposes, according to municipal e-mails obtained in a Freedom of Access Act request.

On Oct. 13, the Coast Star asked the town of Wells and members of the Board of Selectmen and Ordinance Review Committee to provide public e-mails …Click here to read the rest of the article.

E-mails point to influence
from Seacoast Online, 11/19/09
A Nov. 3 vote on water-rights in Wells already is well behind us, but we return to the issue this week with a story on communications between Poland Spring and a handful of town officials.

We stumbled across the story, as we report, after Jason Heft of the Ordinance Review Committee forwarded our way via e-mail a letter to the editor.

The letter stood out because it was signed by Heft but appeared to have been written by Corey Hascall of Barton & Gingold, the public relations firm out of Portland that has represented Poland Spring in its efforts to find new sources of spring water in southern Maine …Click here to read the rest of the article.

Plus new links in National News, Wells page, and Nestle in the News.