RUMFORD — A spring water bottling company may soon explore tapping into the ground around Milligan Well, Rumford’s primary water source.

Nestle Waters North America would search for springs around the well near the Ellis River off Route 5.

The town’s other primary water source is Scotties Well near Scotties Brook.

Mark Dubois, natural resources manager for Nestle Waters North America, said the company wants to research possible springs around Milligan Well.

“We want to do an evaluation this summer and get an idea whether there’s springs there and if there’s springs, can you sustainably withdraw water for spring water bottling,” he said.

Brian Gagnon, superintendent of the Rumford Water District, said permission from district’s trustees for the company to look at the water source is in the works.

The water district is a quasi-municipal entity. “Our board is responsible for making decisions on the behalf of their ratepayers,” Gagnon said.

“By selling water to them would be similar to selling water to the mill,” Gagnon said. “It generates more revenue, and we could dedicate the extra revenue to capital projects.”

He said roughly 70 to 80 percent of the utility’s water mains around 100 years old. “The problem is how do you take care of that?” Gagnon asked.

The oldest part of the system is in the downtown, where a capital improvement project is slated to begin in the spring of 2017. The water district’s cost could be as much as $500,000.

“With this downtown project, it’s probably more than likely to at least bring us a lot closer to doing another rate case,” Gagnon said. The extra revenue from selling water to a bottling company would like soften a rate increase, he said..

Dubois said Nestle Waters was in Rumford in 1987 and 1989 when it purchased Mt. Zircon spring. “The flood of 1987 actually caused a micro biological problem with the spring because the spring got flooded out,” he said.

If drawing water near the Milligan Well is deemed feasible, Dubois said, “Initially, at these types of sites, we would try to truck some water and build a loading station here to bring water like we do up north. We have one in Rangeley and Spruce Spring on Flagstaff Lake, north of Farmington.”

The water would be trucked to the Poland Spring bottling plant in Poland.

Dubois said there would be a “lot of levels of review” before such a project becomes reality. Toward the end of this year, the company would report its findings at a public hearing in Rumford.

“If there was ever a drought, we could say, ‘Sorry, you can’t run those pumps,” Gagnon said.

In Kingfield, Nestle Waters began bottling water 24/7 in January. The company has additional spring sources in Fryeburg, Poland, Denmark, Dallas Plantation, Pierce Pond Township and St. Albans.

[email protected]