Alton or Hampden-Hermon?

Which should have the distinction of making Wednesday’s cut by the state Facility Siting Board as the preliminary choice for the special-waste landfill for eastern and central Maine?

The best answer, none of the above.

There is evidence, reason and sound argument for rejecting both sites.

The presence of a major aquifer in Alton and the certain knowledge that leaks in the containment envelope are inevitable, make a dump at that location an unacceptable risk. It is folly to dispose of incinerator ash of unknown composition, along with asbestos and paper-mill sludge near a massive pool of fresh water that connects with the Penobscot River, its tributaries and major population centers downstream.

No site is perfect, but this one appears to be particularly poor.

Trash and municipal and industrial waste disposal are societal problems. There is no place in the solution for the N.I.M.B.Y. (not-in-my-back-yard) syndrome. Hampden and Hermon, however, already are making a significant contribution to resolving the problem.

Follow the trash trucks hauling from around this region and coming north on Route 1, Route 2 and I-95. Hermon and Hampden are at the end of the waste stream for many New England communities. The state should not ask more of them.

But the best reason for the board to reject both sites is that there is no longer any reason to rush to judgment by March 1992.

When the Legislature demanded that the Maine Waste Management Agency identify a dump site by next spring, there was a genuine crisis in that more than 100 towns were shipping their municipal trash off to the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. incinerator, but the ash dump at the Sawyer facility in Hampden had only a few months of capacity.

That has changed. Expected expansion at Sawyer and fresh opportunities at Norridgewock and at out-of-state dumps (MERC’s new contract to dump in Rochester, N.H.), offers this state more time and flexibility to address siting, recycling and related waste issues.

The responsible and courageous decision for this panel? Declare none of the prospective host communities acceptable and ask the Legislature to amend its arbitrary timetable when it convenes in January.