Judge rules in favor of landfill Complaint targeted ‘alterations to the license’ of Old Town facility

BANGOR – Superior Court Judge Andrew Mead has ruled in favor of the state’s licensing of the Juniper Ridge Landfill, formerly the West Old Town Landfill, in Old Town.

The landfill, which now is fully operating and recently extended its hours of business to include Saturday and Sunday, continues to be a source of controversy in area towns.

In his conclusion, Mead found the appellants’ arguments to be “without substantive merit.”

Attorney Marcia Cleveland of Brunswick filed a suit in November 2004 at Penobscot County Superior Court on behalf of We the People, a group of residents opposed to the landfill, asking the court to overturn the Bureau of Environmental Protection’s decision denying the organization’s appeal to stop the landfill project.

In addition, the complaint asks the court to define the state’s application to increase the landfill’s height and accept additional waste streams at the site as an expansion rather than an amendment to the already existing permit to accept mill sludge at the site.

“The alterations to the license which were sought in the application do not constitute expansions pursuant to Maine law,” Mead wrote in his judgment.

Classifying the project as an expansion would require the state to hold a formal public hearing and the applicant would have to provide full siting criteria required by Maine’s solid waste laws to prove that the site is suitable to accept the desired waste streams.

“The BEP was well within its discretion to decline to hold public hearings,” Mead wrote.

The suit later was combined because of its similarities with that of Orono resident Paul Schroeder, who also opposed the BEP’s decision.

Schroeder said Wednesday that his appeal focused primarily on state policy and the importation of out-of-state waste.

The three-way landfill deal in Old Town among the state, Georgia-Pacific Corp. paper mill and Casella Waste Systems Inc. was designed to keep the mill open while addressing the state’s waste disposal problem.

The state bought the site from G-P for $26 million and chose Casella, which runs the Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden, to operate it. The project was approved by the Department of Environmental Protection on April 9, 2004.

All attempts by opponents to appeal the project have been unsuccessful.

“I’m sure we were treated fairly and we got a fair judgment in my opinion,” Schroeder said.

He doesn’t plan to appeal the court ruling, but hasn’t given up fighting the issue and says the answers likely will come from policymakers in the Legislature at this point.

“We all have next steps. We’re continuing to work relentlessly against the landfill and bringing in all of this out-of-state waste that will deluge upon our community. It’s just getting started and we’re not going to quit.”

Laura Sanborn, a representative from We the People said Wednesday that the group hasn’t yet received word of the decision, but the secretary at Cleveland’s office said a copy of the judge’s ruling arrived Monday at the office.

Cleveland is on vacation for two weeks and was unreachable by phone.