Boothbay Region Water District (BRWD) trustees raised concerns Feb. 24 about the project timeline for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG)’s and Boothbay Region YMCA (BRYMCA)'s planned water line extension, and whether construction will move ahead without accompanying sewer.  

CMBG and BRYMCA have a memorandum of understanding with BRWD, under which they are responsible for raising project funds and paying for all design and construction activities for the project. BRWD will own the line and be responsible for its maintenance upon completion. The district helped CMBG get $1 million in grant funding from the Northern Border Regional Commission.

As reported in the Register, CMBG and BRYMCA have a similar agreement with Boothbay Harbor Sewer District (BHSD) and are seeking funding for a sewer line extension.  

“If (CMBG and BRYMCA are) not willing to pay out of pocket, and they can't find funding (for a sewer line), they're going to push (the water project) off so long, they're going to lose their funding that we've helped them get,” said General Manager Weston Alley.  

The trustees also raised concerns about the effects  going forward with the water project would have on the watershed if there was not adequate sewer.  

In a post-meeting interview, Alley said he did not want to comment further on the sewer situation until he had a meeting with CMBG and the sewer district to get a full picture of what wastewater systems are, or are planned to be, at CMBG. “At the moment we just don’t know if what they have in place is able to accommodate the expansions going on up there,” he said.  

In other business, Alley said the water flow average for the week of Feb. 16 was 290,000 gallons a day, compared to last year’s 292,000. He also said the region is still in a D2 severe drought, according to the federal drought monitor website. The trustees were skeptical, attributing the status to the website's not being updated.  

“I think we're going to have a good soaking recharge (of the water sources) this spring when this snow starts to melt,” said Alley.

 BRWD has turned on service for two new fire hydrants in Southport.