Questions about contaminated wells, a proposed water line, and who is responsible dominated more than an hour of discussion before the Southwest Harbor Select Board.

Carrie Jones

Jul 16, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.

---

SOUTHWEST HARBOR—”It’s always been a fight,” said Jodie Aragona as she sat in the front row of the Southwest Harbor Select Board meeting, July 14.

Aragona owns a home on the Marshall Brook Road, a road right next to the six-acre Worcester Landfill, which is listed by Maine as an uncontrolled hazardous substance site and for years she’s been trying to get questions answered about her well, about the road’s condition, about a lot of things.

The Marshall Brook Road where Aragona’s house sits is also a road where developer Ben “Lee” Worcester has proposed to have a water main to hook up for his recently approved Trundy Farm Subdivision. That water line—if eventually approved by the town’s Water and Sewer District, which meets Thursday, July 16, would allow new homes in that subdivision to connect to town water. Some wells in the area have been polluted by the landfill.

Her well is contaminated. It’s monitored by the Maine State DEP and has been for years.

But Aragona still has questions.

They are questions, she said, that she and her lawyer have had a hard time getting answers for.

She’s not alone.

For many in the town, the process has been confusing.

One of her neighbors on the road said that they don’t want to hook up to the water line if it’s approved because they can’t afford a town water bill, let alone the potential hook up cost.

During the Tuesday night conversation, former Select Board member James Vallette asked Worcester if he planned to cover the costs for Marshall Brook Road residents to hook into the waterline. Worcester did not answer that question during the meeting.

There’s been a landfill in Southwest Harbor in between Long Pond and the Marshall Brook Road for almost as long as most people can remember. It began in the 1930s with an open burning dump that was used by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and then the town.

As regulations changed, the waste at the Worcester Landfill was sometimes burned, sometimes not. It included, according to former Select Board member Jim Vallette, sewage sludge, fiberglass from boat yards, lab waste from the Jackson Laboratory, and other municipal debris and demolition. Mount Desert and Bar Harbor both used the landfill, too, in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the November election, concerns over the soil in the area and the potential pollutants inspired a citizen-led petition that called for testing of soil contaminants for any property within a half-mile of anywhere the state has deemed “an uncontrolled site.”

Southwest Harbor voters passed the soil standard changes 554-187.

Worcester said they are not prepared to ask for that waterline from the water district at the moment.

“I’m going to ask them to ignore that part of it and only deal with friendly funds,” Worcester said Tuesday about the scheduled July 16 meeting.

Residents along Marshall Brook Road, staff, Select Board members, and the public spent more than an hour asking a question they say has gone unanswered for years: If a new water line is built, who will make sure contaminated well owners actually receive safe drinking water?

But another major question emerged: what exactly is the role of the Select Board in the process of a potential water line through the area to the subdivision, a question that’s complicated because Marshall Brook Road isn’t an official town road; it’s a private one.

That means that to extend the waterline to the Trundy subdivison along that route, Worcester would have to obtain easements from property owners on the road.

During a wide-ranging discussion before the Select Board, residents, engineers, and town officials questioned everything from who would pay to connect contaminated homes to town water to whether the proposed route for the water main is the safest one. No final engineering plan has yet been submitted, and many questions remain unresolved.

“I’m sure other people would love the clarification as well, as to moving forward in a project like this, where it’s not clear cut to me: what are the responsibilities between the planning board and the water and wastewater district, as far as what things do they ask for, and what do they review, because it seems complicated and overlapped,” Select Board Vice Chair Natasha Johnson asked.

It was also about the roles of the state, the federal government, and the town, but possibly—most importantly—how to help home owners like Aragona.

“So listening to what was written and going through and highlighting all the different areas of who’s responsible for what made me realize that it seems like we still don’t have the information from the right people,” Johnson said. “I know that the previously identified levels of certain non-polar VOCs were found at maximum containment levels for drinking water in some of the wells that were identified, which, I think, you would assume that the leachate area would be higher than that because it’s closer to the origin where those chemicals may or may not be found.”

It’s a bit like following a yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz, she said, trying to get information from different parties about different things and figuring out who to ask what questions to.

Those uncertainties dominated much of the Select Board’s discussion Tuesday as residents, engineers, and town officials debated the proposed Marshall Brook Road water line project—a conversation that raised as many questions as it answered.

Residents asked who would pay to connect homes to the new line, who would maintain it, whether every affected homeowner would ultimately receive safe drinking water, and how those commitments would be guaranteed.

“This isn’t just about putting pipe in the ground,” one resident told the board.

The discussion centered on a proposal to extend municipal water to the subdivision, by homes along Marshall Brook Road, where some private wells have been affected by contamination associated with the former Worcester landfill.

But the proposal has changed.

“I’ve looked at every alternative that I know …. this side of collecting it as falls through sky,” Worcester said.

Early discussions envisioned extending the water line from the north from the water treatment plant.

That shift to the Marshall Brook Road prompted new questions from both residents and board members.

Would every affected property still be served?

Would homeowners have to pay for connections?

Who would own and maintain the infrastructure after construction?

Would there be remediation for people with wells when the pipe line goes in if that disturbs the toxins.

Worcester emphasized that those answers are still being developed.

The engineering plans are not yet complete, and the town and its Southwest Harbor Water & Sewer District, of which Worcester is the chair, have not received a final design for review. Before any approvals move forward, many attending said they hoped for detailed plans addressing water pressure, maintenance responsibilities, easements, and long-term operation of the system.

Residents said they appreciated that work was continuing but urged the town not to move ahead until those responsibilities are clearly defined.

For many, the discussion wasn’t simply about engineering.

It was about trust and worry.

People like Aragona who have spent years living with uncertainty over their drinking water said they want written assurances—not assumptions—that any project will permanently solve the problem and clearly spell out who is responsible if future issues arise.

The Select Board did not take action on the proposal.

Instead, the discussion underscored how much work remains before a final plan comes before the town.

One geologist, who summers in Southwest Harbor and works in other states on landfill remediation, said that a first step would be for the town to create a Phase 1 site assessment, meant to give them an understanding of the landfill site. That typically involves landfill mapping, mapping the land around the landfill, adding known toxins and contaminants to that map (such as polluted wells, soil samples, etc.) so that the town can make good decisions and understand the implications of those decisions to the environment and health and welfare of the people who live there.

For Craig Kesselheim that relates to another complicated question: how the town committees each approach projects and whether those committees and boards work with the charge of protecting all the people in the town’s health and welfare or instead focusing on one project at a time without looking at the cumulative impact of all the projects.

“I think that’s an important kind of fundamental question,” for committees to consider, Kesselheim said.

After discussion by Select Board member Kalie Hess, the Select Board agreed to hold a joint public workshop with the water and sewer and water district about the waterline and invite the DEP, Katie, the local district and community members to participate.

They also instructed the town manager and the Musson Group (a consulting group helping the town with revising its ordinances) to get them some clarity on the town’s legal ability and or non-ability in its role regarding the project.

---

HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY

When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other.

We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going.

If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship.

It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light.

Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now.

Thank you so much for being here.

Founding member information can be found here.

Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you.