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State officials charged with overseeing a controversial state-owned, privately operated landfill straddling the Old Town-Alton line were on the hot seat before a local committee and residents Wednesday night.
Darryl Brown, director of the State Planning Office, and Carlisle McLean, Gov. Paul LePage’s senior policy advisor on natural resources, sat smack in the middle of the council chamber at Old Town City Hall Wednesday night.
In front of them were critical members of Juniper Ridge Landfill Advisory Committee. Behind them was a public constituency mostly longing for action on a long list of environmental concerns.
The forum was altogether civil, but it grew heated at times.
One resident told state officials the landfill needs to be “thrown the hell out of Old Town.” Another said the dump was a case of “environmental injustice.”
Such exchanges are considered commonplace in Old Town, where the landfill has been state-owned and overseen by the Maine State Planning Office since 2003.
The polarization surrounding the site came after a deal that year when the state acquired the property. The Georgia-Pacific paper mill threatened to leave Old Town and lay off 600 workers in 2003 if it had to continue paying for the daily operations of the landfill.
Shortly after the deal, Vermont-based Casella Waste Management was the only bidder on a state offer to operate the facility. Casella signed a 30-year contract and paid the state $26 million.
‘A number of concerns’
In the time since the purchase, many on the Juniper Landfill Advisory Committee, established in 2004 by the state legislature to act as a liaison between the public and the parties involved with the facility’s operation, have felt powerless and ineffectual in dealing with both Casella and the state.
“As a committee, our hands are completely tied,” said committee chairman Peter Dufour of Old Town. “Our authority is unclear, and we need clarification from the state because we cannot make appeals, we can not challenge permits, and we cannot regulate the tons of trash that enter our town every month.”
Brown and McLean were on hand to hear such claims and the public’s grievances as part of a concentrated effort undertaken by the State Planning Office that will examine how to best manage Maine’s solid waste policies and its processes for disposal.
“We’re here to listen to everyone. We want to know what’s wrong and how we can fix the problems,” Brown said. “We want to talk with everyone who has a dog in the race. We’re traveling across the state, and we’re here to listen.”
The advisory committee seemed eager for the opportunity to be heard Wednesday night. Brown heard a lengthy list of longstanding issues the town has had with the landfill.
Juniper Ridge is one of only two state-owned landfills. The closest privately owned facility, approximately 20 miles south in Hampden, stopped accepting refuse at the end of 2010.
Shina recommended the state find more room to dispose of its waste and expressed worries over the landfill’s expansion. He recommended new waste sites be developed to the north and east of Old Town as far away as Presque Isle.
The state only recently acquired a landfill in Millinocket, and the closest site to Juniper Ridge is a private facility in Norridgewock, nearly 70 miles to the west. For Old Town, this means nearly 2,000 truckloads of waste are brought to Juniper Ridge each month, according to committee member Ralph Leonard.
“A huge problem is transportation,” Leonard said. “We have these big trucks meandering down our small streets, and it is a safety issue.”
Leonard said the trucks come from as far as Massachusetts, something all members of the advisory committee, as well as members of the public, protest.
“Well, I hope you brought your truth-brush, because there really are a number of concerns,” committee member Ted Shina of Old Town said to Brown and McLean.
Maine waste via Massachusetts
By law, Juniper Ridge’s obligation is to process construction and demolition debris (CDD) generated only in Maine.
However, the statutory language for defining out-of-state waste remains nonexistent. This has allowed Casella to process waste generated out-of-state in Maine, thereby turning it to in-state waste.
Committee members and members of the public are convinced that Juniper Ridge is processing more out-of-state waste than anything else.
And all available statistics validate their concern.
In 2010, according to an annual report released by a division of Casella Waste Management, 53 percent of all materials delivered to the site were recycled while 47 percent of the materials were left in landfills.
Casella’s own figures indicate that 85 percent of that refuse came from Massachusetts, where it is illegal to dump any CDD in landfills.
But according to figures provided by Rep. Robert Duchesne, D-Hudson, only 9 percent was recycled, and 91 percent was dumped.
“The issue of redefining out-of-state waste is of utmost concern and a top priority,” Brown said. “We are going to pass what we’ve heard tonight along to the governor and the legislature.”
Duchesne’s figures include all material delivered to the facility, whereas Casella’s figures include three different ways of processing waste, all considered beneficial and therefore deemed recycled.
“We find ourselves challenging out-of-state waste constantly, with little or no success,” Dufour said. “We keep accommodating material from out-of-state with our land and our resources.”
When pressed by Ralph Coffaman of Old Town — who was once threatened with expulsion from the meeting for ignoring calls to calm down — on how much out-of-state waste enters the landfill, McLean responded.
“Technically, under the law, there wouldn’t be any out-of-state waste coming into that landfill that is municipal solid waste,” she said.
“So we burn it and bring it here, then it’s not out-of-state waste?” Coffaman said.
He then turned to Dufour, the committee chairman.
“I feel like you’re not representing me,” Coffaman said, “because that trash ought to go.”
A committee of ‘beggars’
The advisory committee also lamented that it receives no funding from the state, even though the legislature ordered the town to create it.
“We’re out here like beggars, expected to serve the city and state,” said Leonard. “We need the ability to appeal, we need more authority, and we need to be able to intervene. Even if we could do all these things, how are we expected to do this kind of work without any funding?”
For the most part, committee members were given no answers, and when asked after the forum what the next step was in resolving the committee’s concerns, Brown and McLean said they could do little other than pass their recommendations along to the legislature.
“Clearly, the advisory group is critical to this whole process,” McLean said. “But we really are not in a position to give any of these answers right now. The executive branch of government and the legislative branch of government are two separate things. So stay tuned on the issue of funding.”
Though members on the advisory committee labeled the legislature’s role in reforming waste management policies as largely apathetic, lawmakers may be the town’s only hope.
Both Brown and McLean acknowledged one purpose of the forum was to gather information that will help push a piece of legislation, LD 693, which was tabled at the end of the last session, through both chambers of the legislature.
If passed, it would allow advisory committees, like the one in Old Town, to appeal licensing and permitting decisions and intervene in related proceedings in order to give the groups more authority to play an active role in the waste disposal processes of their towns.
It would also direct the State Planning Office to provide the financial and administrative support the Juniper Ridge Landfill Advisory Committee has requested.
Still, many of the town’s residents feel as if their efforts are becoming futile.
“Look the state has made up their minds,” said Orono resident Paul Schroeder. “Casella is calling the shots, and the state is calling the shots, and I don’t have much faith in listening to the public trying to change the course of public policy.
“Each time the state discusses this, it’s always the same thing. They listen, but we never get any answers.”
