Proposed landfill expansion discussed at Dec. 20 meeting

December 28, 2006

A small, but vocal turnout of area residents, some of whom set up video cameras and compiled notes, took the opportunity to state their views last Wednesday night on a proposed expansion of the Juniper Ridge Landfill, formerly known as The West Old Town Landfill.  The Dec. 20 meeting followed the submission of a preliminary information report submitted to the DEP from NEWSME Landfill Operations, LLC on behalf of the Maine State Planning Office, owner of the landfill. The preliminary report is not considered “binding” but identifies “possible areas of interest” in regard to the proposed expansion of the landfill, including determination of hydrogeologic conditions at the site, leak detection design, groundwater and surface water monitoring, and proposed borrow sources. The DEP now has 60 days to respond to the report.

Despite a lengthy public comment section that took place near the end of the two and a half hour meeting, Peter Dufour, chairman of the Juniper Ridge Landfill Advisory Committee chairman, said that the process itself could take as long three years.

“This was just an informational meeting to apprise the public of the preliminary report in regard to the expansion,” Dufour said. “Now the next step will be for (NEWSME) to learn what else they need to have in the preliminary report and go from there.”

Dufour said that there probably won’t be another meeting until sometime in March. Following that meeting, there will be a succession of steps taken in response to the next report submitted by NEWSME, as well as a series of public meetings.

“If one person from Old Town or Alton requests a public hearing, then there has to be a public hearing,” Linda ---, said.

            Much of last week’s meeting focused on the numbers involved in the proposed expansion. According to the preliminary report, the conceptual design of the proposed expansion’s solid waste boundary will occupy “approximately 115 acres north of the existing JRL facility.” A conceptual final grading plan would “provide an additional 22.4 million cubic yards of disposal capacity beyond that already approved in the existing landfill, assuming landfilling to the permitted elevation of the existing landfill (Elev: 390 feet MSL or approximately 190 feet above existing ground surface) with 3H:IV exterior sideslopes and placement of wastes against the north face of the existing landfill.”

            The report also states that the expansion site was selected in part because of its isolated nature and the topographic features that separate the site from existing dwellings along Route 43, Stage Coach Road, and Route 16. Dwellings in those areas are supplied with potable water from drilled and dug wells that are hydrologically isolated from the proposed expansion by topographic depressions, wetlands, and streams, the report notes.

            But some who attended the meeting had questions about the repercussions if the proposed expansion were allowed. One member of the landfill advisory committee, who wanted to know if the proposed expansion would make JRL the largest single landfill in the state, received a response in the affirmative. More than one area resident voiced concern over the technicalities involved in what is considered to be “out-of-state waste.”

            “What we need to do is to take the profit out of waste by requiring that landfills be publicly owned and operated,” one woman said.

            The current JRL site was selected through a “site search” initiated by the James River Paper Company in 1988. That search encompassed the identification and evaluation of over 58 potential landfill sites within a 20 miles radius of  the Old Town paper mill. The facility was subsequently permitted for the disposal of pulp and papermaking residue from the Georgia-Pacific’s operations at the Old Town mill. When G-P shut down two tissue machines and 13 converting lines in April, 2003, several hundred workers were laid-off. That event precipitated the Maine State Legislature’s enactment of Resolve 2003, Chapter 93, authorizing the SPO to acquire, own, and cause what was then known as the West Old Town Landfill to be operated in a revenue-neutral fashion, with an operator chosen through a bidding process. Casella, through its subsidiary NEWSME, won that bidding process, becoming the operator of the landfill.