Westport Island does not know yet if it wants two acres at the old landfill, but officials are looking to find out what’s there, how to possibly use the land and what responsibility might come with it. Early talk centers on the idea of putting in a cistern, a holding tank for water, to help fight fires on the island.

Both the town’s comprehensive and hazard mitigation plans cite a need for water access for firefighting, Westport Island Deputy Emergency Management Agency Director Gaye Wagner said in a phone interview Sept. 23. She said islands can use saltwater on fires “in a pinch,” but it is “very destructive” to firefighting equipment so the equipment must be thoroughly cleaned afterward.

The town floats the cistern idea in its application for a federally funded look at 1509 Main Road. Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Mary Ellen Barnes said LCRPC plans to tap federal funds to assess the site, starting with a review of any paper records of its past uses, then asking the owner’s OK to go look at it, Barnes said by phone Sept. 23.

The application lists the Estate of Lois S. Mason as owner. Wagner said the dump closed in 1978 and Lois “Jerry” Day Mason bought the property at auction in the 1980s. Wagner said a clause bars it from residential use.

A cistern for year round use would need to be buried to keep the water from freezing, Wagner said. If the assessment determines that would not be a safe use of the site “for whatever reason,” the town might also learn from the work, what uses would be safe, she said. “So to us, it’s all pluses,” Wagner said.

Barnes did not yet have a timeframe on Ransom Consulting’s work. The town’s application describes the site as a “weeded clearing surrounded by a perimeter of trees,” and notes it could have contamination typical of a dump and “possible lead shot from target practice.”

By phone Sept. 24, First Selectman George Richardson Jr. recalled taking his children there several decades ago to teach them gun safety.

Richardson said the board will need to know any liability the town would be taking on by owning or using the land. “Depending on how things work out, we’ve got to make sure we’re fully insured for anything negative that may happen,” such as leeching due to any added weight from whatever goes there, he said.

That part of Main Road “would be a great place to put a cistern,” Westport Volunteer Fire Department board member and past fire chief Bob Mooney said in a phone interview Sept. 23. “It could service the lower end of the East Shore Road, the south end of the West Shore Road, and the whole of the Main Road in that vicinity ... and the south end of the island.”

Mooney was already looking into possible cistern sites for the fire department and still is. Grants would be sought for any cisterns, Mooney said. He has been wanting more water sources since he was chief, but the stars may be aligning now, he said. “Really, we want more than one or two (cisterns). This is long-range planning, but if you don’t have a plan, things don’t seem to get done.”

Accepting the Main Road site would take a town meeting vote, Wagner said. The estate has asked how to go about donating, but has not formally offered the land, she explained. And selectmen have sought the assessment to better understand the property and its potential uses, she added.

Barnes thinks the site is a good fit for LCRPC’s Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Assessment grant program. A brownfields site is property that sits undeveloped and/or underused for lack of knowledge of potential environmental liabilities, Barnes explained via email. Past assessments include Wiscasset’s land at Mason Station; a then-vacant, Water Street, Wiscasset commercial property where Wiscasset Family Health is now; and the old Fieldcrest and Best Felts properties in Waldoboro, she said.