AUGUSTA, Maine — A late-session bill to facilitate the closing of Maine Energy Recovery Co. in Biddeford that also would transfer ownership of Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town to Casella Waste Systems Inc. has drawn criticism from a state legislator who believes the effort is being rushed.
LD 1911, sponsored by Sen. Barry Hobbins, D-Saco, requires that the transfer of Juniper Ridge’s ownership from the state to Casella must occur before MERC can be sold or shut down.
Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, argued that the “11th-hour bill” proposes significant changes to a controversial, complex subject — waste management — and comes so late in the legislative session that the public will have little chance for input. The legislature is scheduled to adjourn on Wednesday, April 18, which leaves little time to carefully examine, consider and discuss the proposal, Schneider said.
“Citizens at this point have no idea and then they have to react very quickly,” Schneider said Saturday.
Hobbins did not return a call requesting comment Saturday afternoon.
The deadline for submitting a bill passed on Sept. 30, but exceptions are allowed if both the Speaker of the House Robert Nutting and Senate President Kevin Raye sign off to allow a ballot to go before the 10-member bipartisan Legislative Council. She said she asked Raye to not allow the ballot to circulate this late in the session.
Schneider said she was “stunned” to see the ballot being circulated late last week in spite of her objections.
The ballot passed successfully through the council despite Schneider’s efforts convince a group of five lawmakers to vote against it, she said.
“I know any matters having to do with dumps, landfills and Juniper Ridge have largely been very contentious and are of great concern to the citizens in our region and beyond,” Schneider wrote in an email to municipal leaders in her district.
“It’s such a messy issue for our area,” she said during an interview.
The bill authorizes the executive branch to negotiate terms of the deal, including the transfer of ownership at Juniper Ridge, as well as the shutdown of MERC and the transfer of ownership to the City of Biddeford. It also would terminate the operating services agreement between Casella and the state.
The bill also would allow Juniper Ridge to take in an amount of solid waste not to exceed the amount of waste that was processed at MERC. MERC General Manager Ken Robbins said Thursday that the facility expects to process 260,000 tons of waste this year.
The controversy over expansion proposals at Juniper Ridge and many years of debate over the future of MERC make this a complex issue, and changes as drastic as shifts in ownership should be carefully considered, Schneider argued.
“This is bad, this is bad public process,” Schneider said, adding that she would continue fighting against the bill this weekend and into next week. The bill would be heard before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, but Schneider said she isn’t sure it will get to that point.
“There is no good or valid reason to rush this bill, and it can wait until the next legislature convenes,” Schneider said.
Didn’t the goobernator run on a platform of “transparency”? He, and his repub “friends”, have a very short memory of who they’re supposed to to be representing!
Seems like the repubs are shining in hypocrisy!
This is a god-awful situation, no question. It is stunning that Raye and Nutting allowed this bill to circulate. I never agree with Schneider but I’m with her on this one. But remember this process of toxic waste dumps started under Baldacci and a democratically-controlled legislature. They voted to allow toxic waste to come in from out of state and be processed as Maine trash. If it weren’t for the out-of-state waste we would not be in this fix.
Your blind hatred of Republicans is showing. This bill was put forward by Sen. Barry Hobbins D-Saco, the Senate Democratic Leader.
You blindness is showing, the leaders of the House and Senate are what party ?
Where is the promised transparency if this were allowed to come to a vote,
never mind pass without citizen comments ? .
The Senate Democratic Leader put the bill in. Republican leadership is simply giving him the deference and leeway afforded his position. Sounds like bipartisan camaraderie to me.
Had they tossed the bill, you and your ilk would be hollering about how disrespectful the Republican leadership is.
Blame Hobbins if you don’t like the bill.
This bill and the recently submitted bill to allow mining in northern Maine , both submitted by prominant democrats , ironically came just days after the Lepage administration was accused of holding on to bills until the eleventh hour by the democratic leadership in Augusta. Looks like the republican leadership ,is trying to save face or perhaps to let the dems hang themselves. I can’t help but marvel at the planning that went in to this. If they all paid this much attention to detail perhaps the real problems facing this state could be solved. Politics as usual !
It’s a Democrat from Southern Maine who put the bill in. So if you want to blame someone blame this Liberal Democrat who is rushing this bill through. To blame LePage and Republicans for something they didn’t do is absurd.
When Casella gets a foot in the door you can kiss your a– goodbye, its like trying to get rid of mold in a residence.
More like private profits over public good. The garbage deals the government of Maine has made are amazingly corrupt, beginning years ago, continuing with Balcacci, and now LePage’s administration.
There is lots of money to be made by taking other states’ filth, including toxic and hazardous wastes.
We have to wonder if a few legislators haven’t been on the take. Otherwise, what sensible Maine person would do this to Maine’s clean water and our people?
We need to put a law on ourselves that everything possible be composted, re-used, and recycled. Then, if we actually do that, we can put that law on any garbage that tries to come into Maine. Such a law would virtually stop all garbage from out of state. Period.
That’s the only legal way we’ll be able to do it. That will require a Citizens Referendum to get that question on the ballot. I’m unable to lead such an effort, but I will help anyone who will take it on.
Trash is trash no matter which type of administration or political affiliation has to dispose of it. Casella is a huge operation that does what it does and does it well. It doesn’t play any favorites. Its legal department and its management is without peer at enforcing the letter of their contracts and utilizing any applicable general law in the area it operates a site in to enable them to do things never envisioned by any contracting party and to top it off their money is nice and green to host communities. I have never seen anybody make this outfit eat dirt but I have seen many concerned citizens groups lite up the sky as they go down in flames at court and state authority hearings. Second thoughts and Casella contracts equals what the Mexican marines call “Tougho Sh–o”
Thanks for the good laugh………….{~;> Oops, maybe you weren’t doing a spoof?
Oh, well, I got a good laugh out of your post, anyway.
I can’t recall anybody making them do what they didn’t feel like doing. And the only thing they do is what they perceive as benefiting themselves. There may be exceptions to that statement but there can’t be many. Casella will beat you to death with a signed contract, and send flowers that say “Its a pity you couldn’t read small print.” They dispose of trash period.
What a stupid idea! I guess if Casella hangs around long enough, government will give them the whole State.
Put the fox in charge of the hen house ?
Is importing garbage what they mean by “open for business” ?
Oh yeah, this is what Marden’s does, too, isn’t it ?
Hey, here is an idea, if Casella wants Juniper Ridge Landfill so bad, they should have too take the Dolby Landfill and assume “ALL” liability for both………………………
Giving away state assets? That’s getting a little *too* “Open for business.”
Sounds like a shell game….Follow the money!
Send the Casella packing back to Vermont. If you give them a inch they are going to take a mile. Keep the out of state trash coming into maine to be processed. Tell them there will be no out of state trash and see if they still want control of it.
Why save money by turning our trash into electricity when we can bury it in the ground and pass the costs onto our children for the next thousand years?
This deal sounds worse than that dump smells
Barry Hobbins is just trying to push trash on to another part of Maine. I guarantee that he has friends that would benefit from Casella closing MERC and forcing its trash on Old Town.. Why else would he be pushing this now, as a knee jerk reaction, this late in the game. Casella tried to force their trash onto Lewiston last year and is trying to force it on Old Town this year. Turning trash into energy was a Maine hierarchy years ago. Doing this creates renewable energy and reduces the waste by %90. Think if what was brought to the landfill was 300,000 tons of straight, smelly, trash or 30,0000 tons of already burned, non smelly, ash. I hope we fight this in the Old Town area, as much as I don’t like having a landfill in my backyard I definitely don’t want Casella bringing straight trash to et.
I’ll also be willing to bet that the Dolby landfill is in the running !
Of course it is – good call.
Making energy is pennies compared to the millions to be made by bringing in thousands of tons of OUT OF STATE GARBAGE and dumping/burning it in Maine.
No one’s checking at the border to see what’s in those big garbage trucks…………and no one checks the dumps with a Geiger Counter, either. Wonder what’s being trucked all the way to Maine from Colorado? Colorado mines radioactive uranium…so who knows?
So what should we do with our trash?
The state mite as well give Old Town to Casella they gave them millions when they bought out Tom Sawyer. Maine floated a bond to clean up tire dump for all the town’s and city’s throughout the state instead the money went to the private sector in South Berwick, Maine. The money went to cleanup a tire dump that private sector got payed to make and then the state went in an cleaned up the tires. Guess who got the millons of dollars to clean it up.There was not a dime that went to the city’s or town’s. So again the state lied to the tax payers about bond that was being floated. I think it was like 9.5millon bond. They spent two or three years doing I think. Bangor still sitting up there with over a millon of tire’s cover with fill and seeded. Just a undergound fire waiting to happen. So maybe it should be put on the ballet to be voted on this fall. Stop the state from doing whatever they want. Tell John Casella no out of state trash can come into the state and see if they still want it for free. When the state of maine tell the taxpayers that we are voting on a bond to cleanup a tire dump for town’s and city’s and the money goes to the private sector. This is like the Turnpike Authority deal the state lied and stole from the taxpayers. Someone should be doing 3 an half yrs. in Warren for lying to us over the bond.
This is the tip of the iceberg. The State of Maine has had a policy of not allowing any new landfills to be developed OR having any new “trash burning” power plants built. That is why a place like Juniper Ridge is so attractive to Casella.
This is not a Democratic or Republican problem, it is a problem for all of us. In today’s world, trash burning plants can be equipped with pollution controls that meet the most stringent practical requirements. Landfills can be constructed that collect and process all of the Leachate (think of “garbage juice”) that is drained from it. The State should be making it a priority to identify and bid out new capital for these types of projects, instead of relying on old assets who are not as technically advanced in environmental controls. More importantly MERC shutting down is a big loss for all of the communities that send trash there.
Unless the politicians and the out of control DEP are planning on folks not producing waste in the future, they need to start being realists and not just kicking the can down the road.
you are right- people villifying the landfills and incinerators and businesses that operate them does nothing to solve the problem
Telling the truth isn’t “vilifying.” All dumps leak. That’s a fact any honest geologist will confirm.
All incinerators that burn garbage allow very fine ash through their filters in their chimneys. This fine ash contains dioxins (by-product of burning plastics), heavy metals like lead and arsenic. pesticide residues and other toxic materials.
This top ash is so fine that our nostrils cannot stop it and it goes directly into our lungs and bodies, where they can float around and make trouble for us.
This is all without our consent. So, again, it’s private profit versus the public good. Guess who wins these days?
But the Mafia can get anything they want.
All Dumps Leak. Any geologist will confirm this, as we’ve forced them to do under oath om other dump issues.
Incinerators’ chimneys collect some ash but the very fine fly ash escapes – and, because they burn plastics in these garbage incinerators, which synthesizes dioxins, we have dioxins and heavy metals like lead and arsenic, plus pesticide residues in the very fine ash that does escape with the air out of the incinerator.
These fine ash particles are breathed in by us and wildlife, and go straight to our lungs and bodies. Nice, huh? No excuses for incinerators or filthy dumps, please!
We need to STOP OUT OF STATE WASTE from coming into Maine. There’s only one legal way to do this:
Get enough signatures to put a Citizens Referendum question on the State ballot. If someone will take up that cudgel, I will be happy to help (cannot take it on myself, but can offer considerable help).
The Referendum would say that Maine citizens will compost, re-use, recycle all possible materials. Then, and only once this new law is passed, we can apply this law to incoming garbage.
Out of state waste traffic will virtually cease and the garbage guys from New Jersey will have to find another place for their toxic filth……or clean up their act (not likely).
Are some legislators on the take by the garbage guys? What’s their excuse for this corrupt and anti-Maine piece of legislation? Or are they ingesting Bath Salts? Really!
It will become known as Old Town mountain,mean while all the fresh garbage will be contaminating the town,as the fresh garbage juices flow to the river.
Some one should look at the evolution of MERC and PERC. These facilities were approved as part of a plan to close municipal dumps, establish recycling mandates, generate “renewable” energy from incineration, and centralize waste removal as part of an undocumented green movement. Some one should have recognized the net increase in energy consumption and the dangers associated with burning waste (e.g., dioxins). The decision to place MERC in Biddeford was pure foolishness and justified by the proximity to the source. This is the right time to finally consider all the facts before making an important policy decision. Individuals should become more responsible for the disposal of their waste and industry should be devising a more effective process. There must be other countries which have formulated a better policy which accepts the principle that “small is beautiful”. Technology should be used for the protection of the environment and not for the exploitation of public policy.
If MERC is closed to help the Biddeford business community, a new modern trash to energy facility should be built somewhere else.
These plants can operate with extremely low emissions. They don’t hurt anything and they are a lot more productive than wind mills.
And it should be located in Southern Maine , perhaps Saco or Cape Elizabeth !
The point is to keep OUT OF STATE GARBAGE out of Maine!
I’m afraid you’re misinformed about garbage incinerators. They hurt a lot. When they burn people’s garbage, and the other toxic materials sneaked in over the border in those garage trucks, they’re burning lots of plastic.
Burning plastics synthesized dioxins, the most deadly set of chemicals known. That’s what was in Agent Orange which we drenched Vietnam with, and from which our Vietnam vets are still suffering, and Vietnamese are still having deformed babies 40+ years later.
Plus the heavy metals like lead and arsenic, plus pesticide residues, come out of the smokestack in such tiny ash that they can’t be readily seen – – but we can easily breathe them in where they immediately get into our lungs and bodies, able to move around and cause our bodies lots of trouble over the years.
I agree that the out of state garbage needs to stop. Processed or not. I would think most Maine residents wouldn’t like to think their state is a depository for New England’s trash. Seems to go against the grain of everything most of the environmentalist types are fighting for in the first place. Seems ridiculous that most corporations need to stand on their head to get the necessary permits to do anything in this state, but somehow Casella is allowed to operate in this fashion unchecked. There are a lot of things in life that I myself am willing to tolerate and live around ( the thought of nuke plants and hydro electric dams don’t bother me), but the way this landfill has been managed is just ridiculous. It’s amazing to see all the tractor trailers running up and down 95 heading up to the dump with someone else’s trash.
Casella may be in desperate shape financially. The last information I saw was
that they had not declared a profit for five years. Their debts are
greater than the value of their assets. We must insist on full financial
disclosure before even entertaining the idea of LD 1911, including
profits and losses of their Maine facilities. I believe that proving
financial capacity would be a condition of DEP transferring licenses
from the State Planning Office to Casella. Casella received a
FAME-backed loan of $25 million soon after being named Operator of JRL.
That debt was still at about $23 million at last check. At this rate
that debt obligation, arranged in good faith and backed by Maine, might
be paid off by the start of the 22nd Century.
Licensed remaining capacity at JRL is at least 5 Million Cubic Yards. This is an
extremely valuable resource now owned by Maine citizens. The value of
each yard is at least $50, giving the space currently available a value
of $250 Million. Casella wants us to give it to them! If the State
decides to sell JRL, it should be an open bid, which by the way would
still destroy our Waste Policy.
(From a letter to the Natural Resources Committee by Ed Spencer)
Casella
may be in desperate shape financially. The last information I saw was
that they had not declared a profit for five years. Their debts are
greater than the value of their assets. We must insist on full financial
disclosure before even entertaining the idea of LD 1911, including
profits and losses of their Maine facilities. I believe that proving
financial capacity would be a condition of DEP transferring licenses
from the State Planning Office to Casella. Casella received a
FAME-backed loan of $25 million soon after being named Operator of JRL.
That debt was still at about $23 million at last check. At this rate
that debt obligation, arranged in good faith and backed by Maine, might
be paid off by the start of the 22nd Century. Licensed
remaining capacity at JRL is at least 5 Million Cubic Yards. This is an
extremely valuable resource now owned by Maine citizens. The value of
each yard is at least $50, giving the space currently available a value
of $250 Million. Casella wants us to give it to them! If the State
decides to sell JRL, it should be an open bid, which by the way would
still destroy our Waste Policy.
For all those who want to point party fingers at each other, this isn’t a democrat/republican thing. All of us people need to get on the same page and decide what we want for our children, and our children’s children. Do we want a sneaky, underhanded corporation running our state? Do we want to continue to truck in waste, including biomedical waste, from more affluent out-of-state communities because we’re too poor to object ? And then dump that waste in a wetland surrounded by streams? Do we want to endanger our environment that way? Do we want our tax dollars to continue to repair the roads that the trash is traveling on? All the while, Casella makes deals and keeps everything secret until the deal is practically done. Just like their proposed multimillion dollar methane pipeline deal they concocted with the University of Maine! Biomedical waste???? Methane pipelines???? Common people!!! Time to awaken to our reality and work together as people who like clean air and water.
For all those who want to point party fingers at each other, this isn’t a democrat/republican thing. All of us people need to get on the same page and decide what we want for our children, and our children’s children. Do we want a sneaky, underhanded corporation running our state? Do we want to continue to truck in waste, including biomedical waste, from more affluent out-of-state communities because we’re too poor to object ? And then dump that waste in a wetland surrounded by streams? Do we want to endanger our environment that way? Do we want our tax dollars to continue to repair the roads that the trash is traveling on? All the while, Casella makes deals and keeps everything secret until the deal is practically done. Just like their proposed multimillion dollar methane pipeline deal they concocted with the University of Maine! Biomedical waste???? Methane pipelines???? Common people!!! Time to awaken to our reality and work together as people who like clean air and water. Casella hosted a meeting just 2 weeks in an attempt to appear transparent…. they even invited people out for hotdogs and a barbecue!! But never was there any mention of their next plan…. and this is usually how they conduct business. In my opinion Casella and take those hotdogs and shove where the sun don’t shine.
And shame on those lawmakers for allowing this resolve after the deadline had already passed, and doing so on a holiday weekend. Another fine example of sneaky underhanded politics. The people have a right to know what’s happening around them, and to participate in the political process. Isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be?
Giving the Juniper Ridge landfill to Casella in exchange for Casella giving MERC to Biddeford is nothing more than corporate welfare on the taxpayer’s dime. Wasn’t transferring millions in liabilities from a paper mill landfill in Dolby to the taxpayers enough of a giveaway to corporations? I thought the Republicans are opposed to welfare. I guess when it goes to their wealthy benefactors they can’t resist. If Biddeford want’s to close MERC they are free to buy it at THEIR expense, not mine.