The small town of Fryeburg, Maine, has been embroiled in a legal battle with Nestle Waters NA since 2005.

On May 12, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine ruled in favor of Nestle in the ongoing war between residents trying to protect their local, natural resources and the international food giant, which plans to withdraw up to 603,000 gallons of water a day from the Saco aquifer.The latest legal matchup springs from a 2014 decision of the Maine Public Utilities Commission approving a lease between the Fryeburg Municipal Water Authority and Nestle under the Poland Springs brand name. The lease, which can run as long as 45 years, would permit Nestle to withdraw hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day, 365 days per year.This battle started in June 2005 when Nestle applied for a permit to build a trucking facility from the town's planning commission.The planning commission approved the permit in October 2005.The permit application moved on to the Zoning Appeal Board in January 2006, where it was denied. Nestle filed a suit against the "Inhabitants" of the town, the Board of Appeals, and the watchdog group Western Maine Residents for Rural Living.The court found that the planning commission had not properly considered the comprehensive land use plan andsent the matter back to the planning commission to consider the objections of the town's residents.Nestle ignored the court's order and filed a new suit in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court instead.In July 2007, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court found that the matter was not ready for their consideration and sent it back to the planning commission. The planning commission that November revised its original opinion and denied Nestle's permit application.Nestle filed an appeal with the zoning appeal board and it was again denied. Two months later Nestle filed an appeal in the Maine Superior Court, which denied the permit, and the case is appealed to the Maine Judicial Supreme Court.In June 2009, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the original permit finding that the comprehensive plan was "visionary" and not regulatory in nature and that Nestle's permit application had met all of the requirements of the ordinance regulating the operation.In 2014, Nestle won approval from the state's Public Utilities Commission to proceed with a new, more expansive contract. Under the new contract Nestle would purchase the water from the water company at published rates, i.e. the same rates as the residents.But as the number of gallons increase, the rate drops significantly. So Nestle will be paying substantially less than residents for their own water. The contract also requires Nestle to pay $12,000 per month to lease the property and to maintain the well head.The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine heard oral arguments onMarch 1 on the new contract. The PUC's attorneys argued that there are adequate safeguards to prevent Nestle from draining the water supply.