MARION TOWNSHIP – Maine Department of Environmental Protection staff have recommended that Commissioner Martha Kirkpatrick deny a license for a controversial new septic waste disposal site near Patrick Lake.

The commissioner is expected to make a final decision on Stephen D. Preston Jr.’s application by March 4.

According to a draft order prepared by Richard Haffner of the department’s Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management, Preston has not demonstrated the technical ability to operate the 8.65-acre site because he has violated the state’s septic waste management rules in the past and appears intent on continuing those violations.

The violations took place at Preston’s proposed site off Route 186 and a county-owned septic waste disposal site in Marion Township that Preston has operated under contract with the Washington County commissioners for the past five years.

The commissioners developed the land-spreading site in 1990 to serve the unorganized territories and towns that could not find suitable sites of their own.

Haffner said in the order that Preston’s father, Stephen Preston Sr., was the operator of the county-owned site from 1990 through 1997 and that his son worked for him.

The elder Preston installed a series of gravel access driveways at the 4.84-acre site without department approval. The driveways were several feet above the surface of the spreading field, which meant that sludge could not be spread evenly across the field, Haffner wrote.

Preston and his father were paid to empty the septic storage tanks and spread the sludge. Because the roads prevented them from using a sludge-spreading device, they used a hose, which resulted in uneven applications and excessive amounts of sludge in certain areas. The amount of sludge applied to a site is limited by state regulations to protect groundwater under the site.

The department discovered those spreading violations in April and June 1995 and expressed their concerns to Calvin Preston, supervisor of Washington County’s unorganized territories, but the violations continued, according to Haffner’s draft order.

Calvin Preston is the brother of Stephen Preston Sr. and uncle to Stephen Preston Jr. He was responsible for supervising the Washington County septic waste disposal site from its inception in 1990 until he retired in 1999.

Haffner said in the draft order that he inspected the county site in August 2001 and the violations were continuing. He also observed during that visit that septic waste had been spread on areas of the site that didn’t have any vegetation and on areas where the vegetation was more than 2 feet tall.

Both actions are violations of Maine’s septic waste regulations, Haffner said. Other violations he found included a septic waste storage tank that was unlocked and unattended and a lack of a required warning sign at the entrance to the site.

Haffner also visited Preston’s proposed site in August 2001 and found that Preston had installed storage tanks without approval of the department and had failed to employ erosion control methods he had identified in his application. Preston also had failed to install a warning sign at the site entrance, Haffner wrote.

According to the draft order, Stephen Preston Jr. – as well as his father – violated state regulations and “inappropriately handled septage” at the Washington County site.

When Preston applied for a license for his own site, he listed his uncle, Calvin Preston, as an assistant site operator, suggesting, according to Haffner, that he would provide additional oversight for operations in compliance with the license.

Haffner wrote that supervision by Calvin Preston “was insufficient to ensure proper management of this site.”

Haffner also found that spreading septic waste at the proposed site “would be inconsistent with the current recreational activities on and around Patrick Lake.”