June 14 was the seventh anniversary of the Maine Legislature’s vote to acquire the West Old Town Landfill (now Juniper Ridge) and turn its operation over to Casella Waste Systems. Communities in the Old Town area have been grappling with the negative consequences of this hasty legislative decision ever since: incessant truck traffic, nuisance odors and the difficulties gaining public information about deals that are made mainly behind closed doors.
Over the years, Casella’s consistent objective has been to expand the landfill in terms of both size and the types of waste it accepts. Recently, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection rejected Casella’s application to triple the size of the landfill because the expansion did not meet the DEP’s public benefits test.
Casella’s attention has now turned toward converting the Old Town landfill into a methane gas production facility aimed at supplying landfill gas to the University of Maine for its steam plant boilers. This idea shares many features with the now-defunct plan to supply the Old Town mill with energy-efficient, below-market fuel derived from demolition debris.
Though perhaps well-intentioned, we are concerned about the proposed landfill gas contract between Casella and the city. Our concern primarily hinges on the idea that this new facility will undermine incentives to act toward what we know is the right thing to do with our trash — reduce, reuse, recycle. Instead, this project is likely to actually fuel our waste problems by encouraging more trash generation, less beneficial reuse and more landfilling.
The advocates for landfill gas production present a simplistic argument: If the gas is going to be produced anyway, why not use it as an energy resource rather than venting very dangerous gases (methane, carbon dioxide and other toxic components) into the atmosphere or flaring it? Though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted a landfill gas-to-energy initiative, recent studies, including some by EPA researchers, have questioned the value of gas production for fuel. While extracting gas for fuel may be recommended for older facilities already in place, the development of a huge facility such as Old Town’s for the purposes of gas pro-duction is very problematic.
We know that landfill space is an extremely scarce and valuable public resource whose capacity needs to be carefully conserved. It’s for good reasons that landfills are the “lowest rung” on the state’s solid waste hierarchy as defined by law that urges reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, incinerate and, on the bottom, landfill. Conver-sion of the Old Town landfill to a long-term gas production facility would further divert reusable, compostable materials to the landfill and encourage the import of even more out-of-state waste.
In addition to these waste policy outcomes, we are concerned about a clause in the contract that would provide the city with what amounts to a kickback for arranging federal energy funds toward building a 6-mile gas pipeline from the landfill to the UMaine campus. Last December (without Old Town council approval or even consultation) Old Town requested $3 million of public funds from the Department of Energy toward Casella’s pipeline construction. Casella is offering Old Town a rebate that equals half of what Casella would have spent on financing if they had obtained these millions through private sources.
In addition, we are concerned about a contract clause that prohibits parties from making any public announcements about the gas project without approval of all other parties. This is on top of other confidentiality agreements already in place. While Old Town is prohibited by law from regulating the landfill, Casella has no prob-lem in welcoming it as partner in their search for public financing. This self-censorship enforced by contract is another version of the restrictions that Casella has placed on many of the communities where they do business.
Because of these concerns among others, along with no immediacy for approval of the contract, we urge the Old Town council to say no to this project at this time. The council is expected to hold a second public hearing along with its vote on the contract at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 17, at the Old Town Public Library. The public is invited to come and express their opinions on the issue at this hearing.
Mary Dolan is a resident of Old Town. Paul Schroeder is a resident of Orono. Both are members of the Trash Tracking Network, www.trashtrackers.com.