Brewer denied public hearing regarding landfill

BREWER – The Board of Environmental Protection has denied Brewer’s request for a public hearing on the West Old Town Landfill amendment application and for the board to take jurisdiction over the issue.

“The board is not going to assume jurisdiction and there will not be a public hearing,” said Maine Department of Environmental Protection project manager Cyndi Darling, who also is the environmental specialist for the agency. “The commissioner is required to make the decision and then she takes it to the board.”

The board reaffirmed Commissioner Dawn Gallagher’s opinion on Jan. 15.

“Basically what they are saying is that a 30-year, $25 million contract is not worthy of a public hearing to get public input,” Brewer Economic Director Andrew “Drew” Sachs said after hearing the news on Tuesday. “How can they make a decision like that and not have a public meeting?”

The state is in the process of purchasing the West Old Town Landfill from Georgia-Pacific Corp. as a financial incentive to help maintain jobs at the company by lowering operating costs. The state signed a formal agreement with G-P to acquire and operate the landfill on Nov. 20, 2003.

Casella Waste Systems, which has been hired as the operator of the Old Town facility, and the state are currently working on a operating services agreement.

DEP approval of the pending West Old Town Landfill amendment application is required for the deal between the state, G-P and Casella to proceed.

Brewer City Manager Steve Bost and Sachs both said the DEP should not be the one to make the decision on the three-party agreement.

“The state should not be reviewing itself,” said Bost.

“It’s kind of like a code enforcement officer giving approval for electrical work he’s done,” said Sachs.

Brewer’s biggest issue with the amendment application is the proposed waste transportation route.

The proposed truck route would take southern Maine waste, roughly 400,000 to 600,000 tons annually, from the Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden owned by Casella to Bangor and then across the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge to North Main Street in Brewer. Once in Brewer, the trucks would head north on Route 9 through Eddington, turn on to Route 178 through Bradley and Milford and then cross back over the Penobscot River to Old Town.

The landfill is located west of Interstate 95 between Exit 52 and 53, just south of the Alton town line. Empty trucks would use I-95 for their return trip.

Not a day goes by where residents along the proposed route don’t call to complain or find out more about the issue, said Sachs. In a letter addressed to Darling on Jan. 7, Casella attorney Thomas Doyle responds to Brewer’s concerns.

“Although others have commented on the amendment application, it has not generated substantial public interest of the nature warranting Board jurisdiction,” Doyle’s letter states.

Doyle goes on to state, “There should be no discrimination against the trucks carrying waste to the West Old Town Landfill simply because they are transporting solid waste rather than another type of product or raw materials.”

The DEP is currently in the comment stage of the landfill license amendment application, according to Darling, who said public comments on the application would be accepted until Feb. 13, when the DEP hopes to make its decision.

Approval of the amendment application would increase the disposal capacity at the Old Town site from approximately 3.3 million cubic yards to 10 million cubic yards and would increase the different types of waste accepted.