Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-10-02
FOR PURE WATER.
Maine Water Co. Asks for {
Bill of Restraint.
Says Watervi||e and Oakland PoIIute
the Massachusetts,,
Warning Letter Was Unhecded an,
This Step Follows.

| The letter OF worning recently issued
| by the Maine Water Company to par
| ties IN Waterville and Oakland who
are pollu;ing the waters Of Messalon-
| skee stream has been followed NV
| something of i1cre serious nature.
The company has now filed a pete
| ton for a bill of restraint With the
kennebec clerk Of courts and COM
mands the offending parties to appear
before the Supreme Judicial Court in
November. The names of the re :
spondents are as follows: The Dunn
Edge Tool Company, the Oakland
Wooden Company. the Brown Wooden
Company, the Emerson & Stevens
Manufacturing Company, the Cascade
Wooden Mill, the Cascade Savings
Bank, and the Oakland Electric Light
Company, all concerns doing business
in Oakland, and the inhabitants of the
village OF Oakland; Abraham. Bach
eloer, Edwin r. Bailey, George f. Al
len, George b. Huff A. G. Maines M.
l.. Strickland, Mis-. Georgia Gleason,
Mrs Mary Sullivan Columbus c. Mar
shall, Fred Gaylord, o. NJ. Sibley, Mrs.
Eliza Stevens, David Pike. George w.
Hubbard Samuel Hersorl. Henry f.
Bates, S. II. Morrill,, Gideon Haines.
Abian Walker, George W. Goulding,
A. p. Benjamin. George H. Vinegar,
Charles J. and w. A. Blake, of the firm
OF Blake Brothers and Chester +. a.
WinsloW. doing business under the
name of a. Winslow & Co., all of Oak
land; and the inhabitants Of the city
of Waterville.
The plaintiff. the Maine Water Com
pany brings the bill in its own behalf
ard also in behalf of the kennehec
Water District, and commands each
end all OF the respondents TO file de-
murrers pleas or answers to said bill
within 80 days after the return day Of
the bill
The points raised by the plaintiffs
are in the main as follows: The Messa-
lonskee stream is a non-tidal stream
and at the point where it leaves the
foot of Messalonskee lake is pure,
wholesome. drnkabe and uncontami-
mated; that between the lake and the
intake pipe of the Water Company
the stream passes through the village
of Oakland for the distance of about
ore mile, and that in that distance. the
waters Of the stream are polluted by
mills, factories and many other sources
of impurities, and that when the waters
reach the intake pipe, they are unfit to
be used and render the parties sup
piled thereby liable to sickness and
disease; and that each of the re-
spondents heretofore named has con-
tributed and is still contributing to the
h.. he IA Sc,
entitled by virtue of its riparian own
ership on said stream, and it's char
tered rights therein, to have, for the
purposes of it's business and for the
use of the communities supplied by it,,
the waters of the stream flow to it's
riparian land and its intake pipe in
their natural purity and wholesome
ness. and especially to have said
waters kept free from all filth, manu-
featured wastes and other substances
artifcia!ly conducted into it, which are
injurious to health or calculated to cor
rupt. poilute and poison said waters,
or to endanger the health and comfort
of the companies supplied by it; that
the acts complained of by the said
company are nuiSances at common law
and by the statutes of the State, and
that each of the defendants has con-
tributed thereto and will continue to do
so. unless restrained by the court.
Wherefore, inasruch as the plaintiff
is without remedy except in equity. it
prays that the defendants may be re-
strained by the temporary and per-
petual injunctions of the court from
continuing to pollute the said waters
of Messalonskee stream above the
said intake pipe of the Maine Water
Company, and asks for such other and
further relief as the nature of the ease
may require.
The features Of this case recall one
somewhat similar, about a year ago, in
which Judge Whitehouse granted an
injunction to the Hollingsworth &
Whitney Company and the Lockwood
Company of Waterville against lum-
Der companies which We're throwing
saWdust into the Kennebec river. and
thereby clogging, impeding and iniur-
ing the machinery of the mills. The
case is one worth following and may
throw light on ways of dealing with
the water problem in other Maine cities