WATCHING OUR WASTE

Most Mainers don’t think much about where their trash goes and where their electricity comes from. Increasingly, the two are related as burning trash produces electricity. It can also result in contamination and pollution. Because Maine cannot stop trash from coming into the state, it must focus on screening what comes in and ensuring proper pollution controls are in place when it is burned. New rules from the Department of Environmental Protection aim to do this.

Trash, including construction and demolition debris, is burned for two reasons: to reduce the volume of waste that must be buried in landfills and to produce electricity, which means buying less and possibly selling excess electricity back to the New England power market. Maine and New York are the only states in the Northeast that have facilities to burn construction and demolition debris. Because biomass plants and paper mills need a steady, preferably low-cost, source of material to burn, they are turning to construction debris, which is in large supply in southern New England and is cheaper than wood chips.

Two biomass boilers owned by Boralex, in Stratton and Livermore Falls, currently burn about 300,000 tons of construction debris a year. The company buys debris from about 50 Maine towns and from other states. The Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill in Old Town has received permission from the state to burn the debris, but local residents have appealed the permit. The SAPPI mill in Westbrook has filed an application with the DEP to burn the debris.

A major concern is that Maine is becoming a dumping ground for New England’s waste. Although this should not be allowed to happen, only Congress can regulate such interstate commerce. The alternative is to adopt rules to ensure that the waste imported into Maine is as safe as possible.

New rules from the DEP attempt to do this by setting standards for what type of debris can be burned – only wood, and not pressure-treated wood, for example – and requiring third-party reviews to ensure fuel quality standards are met. This is followed up with sampling to monitor for contaminants that are emitted into the air. Tests at the Boralex facilities by the DEP have found much lower levels of airborne contaminants from biomass facilities than from municipal waste incinerators.

The rules are currently being considered by the Board of Environmental Protection, which earlier this month decided to take more time to consider the updated rules before deciding whether to approve them.

Their thoroughness is appropriate. Burning trash means less waste is buried in landfills and it reduces energy costs for some of the state’s largest manufacturers. But, it must be done in a way that minimizes contamination and pollution.