Biomass boiler discussion dominates public hearing

AUGUSTA – The biomass boiler at the former Georgia- Pacific mill in Old Town was once again center stage Wednesday during a hearing on Maine’s complex and controversial waste management laws.

Members of a state commission held a public hearing Wednesday to hear comments on a lengthy list of proposed recommendations on everything from Maine’s emphasis on recycling to the current ban on new commercial landfills.

But talk of construction and demolition debris, out-of-state waste and the Old Town biomass boiler ended up dominating discussion during much of the morning session and at least part of the afternoon hearing.

State economic development officials as well as representatives of Casella Waste Systems once again defended a 2003 agreement that put Casella in charge of the Juniper Ridge landfill and brought a biomass boiler to the Georgia-Pacific mill.

Don Meagher, manager for planning and development for Casella, urged the panel not to do anything that would affect the company’s ability to supply construction and demolition debris, or CDD, to a firm that has since bought the G-P mill and its biomass boiler.

Casella trucks CDD into Maine because there is not enough wood debris in the state to feed the mill’s boiler, he said.

Meagher said changing the rules now would be an “unfortunate and misguided attempt to change history.”

Edward Paslawski, chairman and chief executive officer of the mill’s new owner, Red Shield Environmental, said the company is currently burning a mix of green wood and CDD in the boiler and meeting state environmental air quality standards.

Paslawski said his firm, which has already lined up several companies to operate in the former mill, is committed to being both environmentally conscious and a good neighbor.

He said burning CDD is key to Red Shield’s ability to keep costs low for current and prospective tenants.

“Our economic plans are based on the fact that I have scrap wood at $4 a ton … and anything that raises our fuel costs is bad” for their business, he said.

The commission has proposed the following recommendations on CDD:

. Give the Department of Environmental Protection the power to declare a temporary moratorium on the licensing of new CDD facilities when the Legislature is not in session.

. Establish a statutory prohibition on the future acceptance of out-of-state waste at state-owned landfills.

. Maintain the DEP’s current policy prohibiting boiler operators from using CDD as more than 50 percent of their total annual fuel consumption.

. Establish a statutory standard requiring CDD processing facilities to recycle or reuse a certain percentage of the mix waste it accepts.

Several members of the audience, as well as a few commission members, expressed frustration at the law that automatically considers out-of-state trash as in-state trash once it passes through a Maine sorting facility.

Charlie Gibbs is a Milford resident and a leader of the group We the People that is fighting the Old Town boiler and CDD statewide.

Speaking after the morning session, Gibbs criticized the commission for allowing paid professionals from Casella and Red Shield to speak before members of the general public, many of whom had to leave work to attend the hearing.

Gibbs accused waste companies of deceiving the public about the amount of out-of-state CDD that is being brought into Maine. A significant portion of that waste is subsequently deemed unburnable and trucked to Maine landfills.

Gibbs said he believes the members of the general public would be outraged if they knew how much waste was being brought across Maine’s borders, filling up the state’s landfills to the financial benefit of private waste companies.

“The problem is the public is not aware of the magnitude of it,” he said.

For more information on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Solid Waste Management, go online to: http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/solidwaste/blueribbon