NORWAY — Selectmen will invite a state official to inspect a town field along Hobbs Pond, after a resident expressed concerns that manure spread on the land may be draining into the water. 

The decision follows an at-times contentious selectmen meeting Thursday evening, at which resident Steve Siskowitz claimed his well and the pond were in jeopardy of being contaminated. He wanted town officials to stop a farmer from spreading manure.

“It’s sad no one cares,” Siskowitz said. 

Siskowitz, who lives near the field, said that a pipe buried in the field drained into Hobbs Pond and the farmer, Jerry Cleveland, placed fertilizer too close to its opening.

Siskowitz said he feared the manure may contaminate not just his well, but the entire pond. He requested selectmen walk the property with him so he could show them the situation.

“No one’s protecting this pond,” he said. “It’s not getting better.”  

Siskowitz said he has not tested his water to see if it was polluted.

Selectman Thomas Curtis said he contacted Matthew Randall, an agricultural compliance supervisor with the Maine Department of Agricultural Conversation and Forestry, who told him the risk was negligible.

“I’m on Hobbs Pond, I’m a neighbor … according to what I gleaned, at least with spreading manure, we need not worry about it,” Curtis said. 

Though the field is owned by the town, selectmen declined to intervene directly or visit the site with Siskowitz. They said Cleveland had obtained the proper permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

In May, selectmen voted to rescind an earlier decision establishing a 200-foot setback between the manure-spreading and abutting properties, after Cleveland objected it was stricter than the 25-foot federal setback requirement. The distance from a well or body of water is 100 feet.

That decision hasn’t set well with everyone. In a letter last month to Town Manager David Holt, resident Paul Eirman urged the town to take action, saying that fertilizer posed health risks. 

A Vietnam War veteran, Eirman said he was exposed to Agent Orange, a highly toxic herbicide sprayed as a defoliant in chemical warfare. He said taking baths helped alleviate the after-effects of the exposure. Because his property abuts the field, Eirman worried the manure could contaminate his well water.

“If this is spread and contaminates the water supply, bathing water, spring water or the pond we will have a huge problem,” Eirman said.

Selectman Russell Newcomb said setting a limit different from the government’s would be arbitrary.

“I, for one, don’t want to take on the U.S. government,” Selectman Bruce Cook added. 

As a compromise, Curtis said he would ask an official to inspect the site before the selectmen’s next meeting. 

In other news, residents approved overdrafts in several accounts: insurance, to the tune of $24,665 for last fiscal year, as well as an additional $25,000 for next fiscal year, which increased because town employees suffered more injuries than in previous years; and at Oxford County Waste, for $2,645.

In addition, Newcomb was elected chairman and Warren Sessions as vice chairman, and newly elected Selectman Thomas Curtis attended his first meeting as a member.

Selectmen reappointed: Carol Millet as assistant to the town manager and Board of Selectmen; Shirley Boyce as town clerk; Dennis Yates as electrical inspector; Joelle Corey-Whitman as code enforcement officer; Shawn Brown as the wastewater pollution control superintendent; Rob Federico as police chief; Bonnie Seames as emergency management director; Debra Partridge as recreation director; and Shannon Moxey the General Assistance director. 

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