Mountains of out-of-state waste

Last weekend, the Bangor Daily News did a comprehensive series of articles on landfills and waste management in Maine, including an excellent aerial photograph of the West Old Town Landfill as it exists today. It’s too bad the BDN couldn’t have included an aerial overhead shot of the Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden as a comparison; it would have shown a mountain of waste, with exposed trash on one side, surrounded by streams on three sides, which flow into the Penobscot River.

I cannot speak for the geology of the West Old Town site, but the Pine Tree Landfill is partially located over an unlined gravel pit, with sand and gravel deposits to the north and south. In Pine Tree’s application for the expansion currently under way, their own engineers state that groundwater flows from the landfill to the Souadabscook Stream to the south, and to Cold Brook Stream tributary to the north. Contamination of the groundwater surrounding the landfill has continued to increase in the last two years, according to reports issued by the town of Hampden’s environmental engineer, Richard Wardwell, despite the capping of the unlined (Conventional) landfill which covers the largest ground area of the Pine Tree Landfill.

The BDN, in reviewing the history of waste management, talks about the movement in the 1980s of moving waste away from population centers: “As densely populated New England sought alternatives, rural Maine was targeted as a destination. …” But the Pine Tree (formerly Sawyer) Landfill, which grew tremendously in that time period as a commercial landfill, taking waste from all over New England and beyond, is not in a rural location; it’s surrounded by residences with deep artesian wells who fear for their water’s safety, in a town rapidly growing, next door to Bangor, the third largest city in the state.

The BDN discusses Maine’s long- range strategy to limit and reduce out-of-state waste; a 1989 law placed a ban on new commercial landfills; a state- owned landfill which could restrict itself to Maine generated waste. This (and the preservation of Georgia-Pacific in Old Town) is the argument for the state purchasing the West Old Town Landfill. But the definition of Maine waste, as the BDN noted, includes out-of-state waste brought to Maine incinerators; in 2001, almost 200,00 tons of waste from outside Maine. This out-of-state waste becomes ash, or FEPR – Front End Process Residue – material that is unsuitable for incineration, or “Bypass” – raw unprocessed trash (the latter two can have serious odor problems) and magically becomes Maine waste, to be deposited in Maine landfills, primarily in Hampden and Norridgewock at present.

The other byproduct of this out-of- state waste when incinerated is toxic emissions in our air (and when it settles) in our water, including mercury, lead and dioxin. Casella Waste Management, which is slated to run the West Old Town Landfill, owns the MERC waste incinerator plant in Biddeford and the Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden. And for the last two years has sent huge quantities of FEPR and Bypass from MERC to Hampden; enough to generate a letter from Hampden’s town manager, Sue Lessard, to Pine Tree in October 2003: “The number of odor complaints resulting from this huge increase in bypass is really unacceptable. …The constant bypass of MERC waste has created serious odor problems with that [odor control] system and it is no longer sufficient to take care of the resulting odors.”

The state’s contract with Casella to run the West Old Town Landfill is flawed as a means to limit out-of-state waste in its state-owned landfill for two reasons:

1. There is no limit to how much out- of-state waste Casella can bring to MERC and then move on as “Maine” Bypass, FEPR and ash to the state-owned landfill in West Old Town. It is also allowed to import out-of-state demo debris to feed G-P’s new biomass burner, if Maine supplies are not sufficient. This is the same insane arrangement that Maine waste incinerators have: the rationale is energy self-sufficiency and recycling of waste; the result is major importation of out-of-state waste to supply these facilities.

2. According to the annual reports issued by Casella, the company has been taking waste into the Hampden landfill at an ever-increasing rate:

In 1998, before the present expansion, Casella took in 115,000 tons of waste in Hampden. In their application for the expansion currently under way, they estimated they would take in up to 250,000 tons a year.

But in 2002, Casella took in 443,000 tons of waste into its Pine Tree Landfill.

And in 2003, they took in 633,000 tons! That indicates a strong market for landfill space. Casella has stated it plans to shift Maine-generated waste from the Hampden landfill to West Old Town. Up to 400,000 tons of it a year. Pine Tree, as a commercial waste facility, can take out-of-state as well as Maine waste. So why wouldn’t Casella, a commercial corporation in the business of generating profit, continue to take advantage of its market by taking in more out-of-state waste, rather than lose half or more of the income it was previously getting from Hampden?

Casella can charge more for out-of- state waste when it has a higher degree of toxic material, like contaminated soil with elevated levels of trichloroethylene, chrome, arsenic and lead that Hampden took from the Woburn, Mass., site made famous in the book and movie, “A Civil Action.”

The state is handing over operation of its state-owned landfill to a company which has demonstrated it has a huge and ever-increasing appetite for waste. Thanks to the state handing Casella another landfill to operate, Casella will have more space available in Hampden to import out-of-state waste. Because of the loose definition of what constitutes Maine waste, Casella, through its MERC plant, can import large quantities of out-of-state waste to the proposed state-owned facility in West Old Town. And as the BDN says, “Casella is obliged to produce increasing returns on investment for its shareholders.” We’ll provide the means!

What about the returns for Maine citizens? The state-owned landfill in West Old Town stands to make a handsome profit for Casella. But the state will make no money from its own landfill, which it could use for recycling programs, waste reduction (Maine is generating more, not less trash despite an anemic economy), programs to reduce and eliminate toxic material in the Maine environment and myriad other beneficial programs.

Casella has an exclusive contract to run and profit from this state-owned landfill for the next 30 years (it was the only company to submit a bid); the landfill will generate no money for the people of Maine other than some fees to the DEP to monitor and bless Casella’s benevolent presence.

Bill Lippincott is a resident of Hampden and a member of the Hampden Citizens’ Coalition.