SERF and turf

Every good political campaign needs a slogan, a pithy phrase of bumper-sticker length that presents a candidate or an issue in concentrated form. “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too” worked in a pre-bumper era; “Maine is on the Move” would be a more recent hit.

It gets confusing, though, when both sides to an issue march under the same motto. That’s the case in Hampden, where the only folks not rallying under banners with the strange device of “Local Control” are those who don’t care whether or not the SERF landfill expands.

Of course, the Nov. 3 vote isn’t on something as straightforward as letting the Sawyer Environmental Recovery Facility (Sawyer Mountain, The Dump) get bigger. It’s about amending the zoning ordinance to add “commercial secure landfill” to the list of conditional uses in the town’s industrial zone, thereby subjecting an expansion application to planning board review, approval criteria and performance standards.

You’d have to go to a monster truck rally to find a bumper that big, so amendment proponents settled on the local control abridged version. Local control being Hampden’s ability to have a say in how SERF runs. As in groundwater protection, long-term monitoring, height, setbacks, landscaping, noise and just about anything else the town wants to control locally. Hampden could even make SERF pay to train townspeople in odor identification so it can be determined whether complaints are the result of SERF or a farmer spreading manure. It could be the only town in Maine with a Board of Olfactory Review.

To the ayes, local control also means the $675,000 in annual community benefits, benefits that exceed the revenues produced by each of the region’s three industrial parks and that come pretty close to what Bangor gets from the Bangor Mall. It means the free disposal of town waste, the donations for a new fire station and athletic complex, the home-value protection guarantee for 24 neighbors. That’s local control as in controlling local taxes.

Opponents say the ultimate local control is closing SERF down and putting a padlock on the gate. It would if the 20 years of garbage and incinerator ash already there would just go away. If the original, unsecure portion could be capped and sealed as effectively as it can under the expansion plan. If they had a way to patch the enormous hole closure will blow in Hampden’s budget.

The big problem with the nay position is that it ignores, or at least downplays, legal and political reality. The DEP just this week approved the expansion, meaning the town’s attempt to block it could be interpreted in court as having a town standard tougher than the state’s, which, regarding commercial landfills, is illegal. Maine has only two commercial landfills; chances are the state would not look kindly upon losing one, especially one that handles the ash that come from burning the garbage of 200 Maine towns.

Beyond the catchy slogan, the opposition argument is weak to the point that a certain amount of exaggeration is required to prop it up. The current height of Sawyer Mountain is about 214 feet above sea level, about 100 feet above ground level. Town and SERF officials have a tentative agreement to go up another 24. It will not double in height, as the latest opposition flyer claims, unless town and SERF officials relish the prospect of getting tarred and feathered. It will not allow the landfill to expand indefinitely, another claim. It will allow it to expand to a base area the DEP just approved, properly set back from boundary lines and a nearby stream. Without these amendments, without the town empowered to negotiate and to set conditions, the height is limited only by engineering principles.

As this turf battle nears its conclusion, it’s important for Hamden voters to remember the town freely chose to host this facility 23 years ago. The logical extension of decision is now to have a greater role in how it operates and to derive appropriate financial reward from it. That’s local control that’s more than a slogan.