Officials urge purchase of Down East Landfill

MACHIAS — The answer to Washington County’s trash problem, according to Rep. George Townsend, R-Eastport, and former Rep. Harry Vose of Meddybemps, is for the county to purchase the Down East Landfill in Marion. But the facility should be re-examined for leaks.

This week, Washington County’s government officials said the issue of purchasing the landfill from owner Alva Achorn of Down East Environmental Associates was still undecided. However, county leaders are searching for ways and means to acquire funds to make the purchase.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners, led by Robert Gillis of Calais, recently was asked by Vose to support a moratorium on any changes to the landfill’s license, pending the commission’s decision on whether the county should purchase the landfill. Vose asked Gillis to write a letter to appropriate state environmental and licensing agencies requesting that they declare a moratorium on approving any of Achorn’s proposed amendments to his license to operate the landfill “until the county has made a decision to purchase the facility.”

Before the county makes any definite move to acquire the landfill, Rep. Townsend wants the facility “reassessed, because I have received information that it is leaking. We would want to take a good look at that,” he said. His concern was that the county might inherit an environmental problem in a package deal that might include a costly cleanup.

Vose said he had discussed with Commissioner Thomas Brennan the availability of the landfill for use by municipalities and other users in the county. “Tom Brennan has been and is committed to acquiring the landfill,” Vose said. The other two commissioners, Donald Grant of Addison and Chairman Gillis expressed concerns about taking the facility by eminent domain. “I will request a legal opinion from the Attorney General’s Office,” he said, “to see what the requirements are for the county to implement the process of eminent domain.”

A public hearing about the future use and ownership of the Down East Landfill may be held between now and August by the Land Use Regulation Commission, according to Townsend. Last month, Rep. Theone Look, R-Jonesboro, and Rep. Townsend requested from LURC that a public hearing be held, and that the county residents and legislative delegation be given adequate advance notice of any public hearings about the landfill.

“Washington County should own its own landfill, and it should be a non-profit enterprise,” said Vose, stressing that the spiraling costs of trash disposal is becoming too heavy a burden on the backs of all people, especially those people living on fixed incomes. “We also want to preserve the regionalization of the landfill to serve this region for the full 30 years that it was originally intended, rather than for its usable lifespan to be cut years short by accepting waste from outside the county.”

Several residents from the county succeeded in late April in getting LURC to delay making any decisions about the future of the landfill and its license until a public hearing could be held. Donald Crandlemire of Machias was one of those who prevailed on LURC to hold a hearing, although the regulatory agency’s staff recommendation stated that a hearing would not be necessary.

Answering a request from the county commissioners and Vose, Sherry Huber, director of the Maine Waste Management Office, has committed her agency to produce an economic impact study of the landfill operation for the county at no cost to the county. The report should be completed by the end of August.

Gillis said Tuesday that if the county became owner-operator of the landfill in Marion, the facility would have its own budget separate from the county’s departmental budget system. It would be a separate entity funded only by those towns using it for trash disposal.

Commenting on the need for the landfill to be used exclusively by towns in the county, Vose said, “Our fear is that once you accept as much as one paper clip from outside of the county, you set a precedent that can open that landfill to all the world.”

He did not rule out completely, however, the possibility that the landfill might be used someday to accept trash from other counties. “I requested that she (Huber) consider making Washington County a region by itself. This would secure the landfill for the county, and it would make Penobscot and Hancock (counties) exhaust all efforts to establish their own landfills before looking into Washington County,” he said.