March 29, 2024
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Landfill operator begins expansion process

OLD TOWN – A 115-acre expansion of Juniper Ridge Landfill is being proposed by the facility’s operator, Casella Waste Systems Inc., in conjunction with the State Planning Office.

The proposed expansion of the former West Old Town Landfill is not a surprise and is a requirement outlined in the operating services agreement between Casella and the State Planning Office to ensure that the state has adequate waste disposal capacity.

With the anticipated closure of the Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden in a few years, which is owned and operated by Casella, Juniper Ridge is the chosen site to dispose of Maine-generated waste.

Siting a new landfill is expensive and typically is a much more lengthy process than expanding a current site.

Casella, under its parent-company NEWSME Operations, has submitted a preliminary report to the state Department of Environmental Protection outlining the company’s plans for the expansion.

“Its primary purpose is to hopefully determine whether any of the site criteria are violated,” Cyndi Darling of the DEP said Thursday.

The report is the first in a lengthy list of requirements that must be satisfied before DEP issues its decision on the proposal.

The State Planning Office is involved in the process because the office owns the landfill property that is managed by Casella.

The landfill sale took place three years ago when the G-P mill previously was faced with closure, making the landfill the first state-owned facility in Maine. Money from the sale was used to purchase and modernize a used biomass boiler designed to cut energy costs.

Despite the effort, G-P announced earlier this year it was closing the mill, but agreed to work with the state to find a buyer.

A buyer has been found and Red Shield Environmental, a group of private investors, is redeveloping the mill site.

To meet the long-term solid waste disposal needs of the state, Casella and the State Planning Office propose to expand the current landfill’s 68-acre permitted solid waste boundary by approximately 115 acres.

As of September, approximately 1.2 million cubic yards of the site’s current 10 million cubic yards of disposal capacity have been used, according to the report.

The landfill accepts an average of about 600,000 tons, or 700,000 cubic yards, of waste, each year.

Similar to the original landfill, the expansion to the north of the current footprint would be on a wooded parcel of land with hardwoods, predominantly in the upper elevations and softwoods in the lower elevation.

“The expansion site was selected, in part, because of its isolated nature and the topographic features separating it from the existing dwellings along Route 43, the Stage Coach Road, and Route 16,” the report says.

The site also requires the applicants to seek DEP and Army Corps of Engineers approval to fill in and compensate for about 6.5 acres of forested wetland.

“It doesn’t actually say that they have to file the [expansion] application,” Darling said. “Obviously they have sufficient capacity with what’s licensed up there to last a very long time.”

The detailed investigation that is the next step at the site will look at a variety of issues, including geography, hydrology and other environmental effects of the expansion. The investigation is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete, according to the report by Sevee & Maher Engineers Inc. of Cumberland.

“It’s important for people to realize this will be a lengthy process,” Darling said.

Within 60 days of receiving the preliminary report, DEP is required to hold a meeting to allow officials from all parties – Casella, the State Planning Office and DEP – a chance to hold a “general discussion” of the proposal.

A date for that meeting hasn’t been set, but should take place before mid-February.

Casella then will continue with its site investigation before submitting an official expansion application with the DEP.

“The preliminary information report is not something the [DEP] issues any kind of decision on,” Darling said.

Once the official expansion application is received, members of the public have 20 days to request a public hearing, or that the Board of Environmental Protection assume jurisdiction of the decision.

Copies of the preliminary report have been provided to the local municipalities to each member of the Landfill Advisory Committee that’s made up of residents from Old Town, Alton and Indian Island.


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