Everything was running smoothly for the Boothbay Region Water District’s project to install water mains on Southport Island. 

But there’s been a snag. 

Fairpoint Communications has inadvertently halted the project due to a quandary about existing infrastructure crossing Townsend Gut, the water channel that separates the island from Boothbay Harbor. 

According to Jon Ziegra, manager of the water district, the plans involved Fairpoint marking their communication cables that run beneath the channel so that a new water main could be installed safely in compliance to the Dig Safe rules enforced by the Maine Public Utilities Commission. 

Ziegra said Fairpoint was supposed to send a diver to mark their infrastructure, but on Feb. 10, he was notified by the project’s engineer, that the dive had been called off.  

“Fairpoint says that their interpretation of the state laws said they only have to mark from the low water line up, and they don’t have to identify the rest of the infrastructure submerged below the water,” Ziegra said, reporting to the water district’s board of trustees on February 10. 

The project is now at a standstill. The private contractor that was hired by the water district to install the water main has chosen to not proceed because of liability issues. The time window for the project’s completion is June. 

The water district has filed a complaint to the Maine Public Utilities Commission and the water district is expected to take legal action, Ziegra said. 

“We’ve gone to the PUC for failure to mark their equipment,” Ziegra said.

On Wednesday morning, Ziegra said the water district hired local marine contractor Chuck Fuller to locate the existing infrastructure. According to Ziegra there are at least five cables running beneath the channel on the north side of the bridge that belong to Fairpoint. 

“Apparently two of the cables are active and Fairpoint doesn’t know which ones,” Ziegra said. “Now we’re involved in a series of legal wrangling.” 

Ziegra said that he discovered that Fairpoint may only be obligated to locate their infrastructure from the water line up, but he declined to comment further on the legal ramifications, except that the project remains at a standstill. 

As of time of publication, Fairpoint has acknowledged the matter but has yet to issue a statement.