OLD TOWN – The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has ruled that no further action needs to be taken regarding ash from the Old Town mill that was disposed of at Juniper Ridge Landfill and believed to contain a high lead content.

“Department staff concur that the results of the waste sampling show that the waste disposed in Cell 3B is nonhazardous,” Cyndi Darling with DEP’s Division of Solid Waste Management wrote Wednesday in a letter to Juniper Ridge staff.

Earlier this year, the facility had problems with toxic levels of lead being found in ash samples taken from the boiler, and in two separate incidents with soot falling onto homes and yards in neighboring Bradley. Bradley is directly across the Penobscot River from the mill.

Some of the ash also was disposed of in February, in an area designated 3B, at Juniper Ridge.

Landfill operator Casella Waste Systems Inc. has been sampling the wastewater runoff at the landfill, known as leachate, and sending results to the DEP.

“I ask that leachate monitoring in Cell 3B be continued as long as possible,” Darling requested in her letter.

She noted that Casella Manager of Planning and Development Don Meagher had said that testing wouldn’t be able to continue much longer because of waste being disposed of in the area. Darling asked to be notified when testing was concluded.

The problems at Red Shield since have been resolved, and the boiler is up and running on a mixture of green wood chips and 45 percent construction and demolition debris producing power for the mill and electricity that’s being sold to the power grid.

The boiler is permitted to burn up to 500 tons of fuel a day. Half of that fuel can be construction and demolition debris, which is sorted waste wood that is less expensive than green chips.

Red Shield also has restarted the facility’s pulp operation and now has 180 employees. Details regarding additional business ventures for the facility continue to be discussed.