PLYMOUTH, Maine — A local fertilizer processing plant that uses septic waste and sludge to make its products has temporarily stopped accepting the waste due, in part, to stringent odor nuisance rules that last year resulted in the company paying thousands of dollars in fines, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection and a company consultant.
“It’s just very difficult to control the odor and meet state standards on hot summer days,” Ted Johnston, an environmental consultant who works for Soil Preparation Inc., said of the outdoor drying process used to make the fertilizer, which has been the source of complaints from residents for years.
Soil Preparation Inc., which opened two decades ago and is licensed to accept septic waste and sludge for processing into organic non-food crop fertilizers, started diverting all of the material on June 1 to Casella Organics.
Despite the company’s action, Rep. Kenneth Fredette, R-Newport, said the odor from the plant has not changed over the last month.
“It really hasn’t,” said Fredette, who was behind much of the legislation to enact new composting facility rules. “It’s not a seasonal issue. It’s about quality of life. People should be able to go outside and not have an odor.”
The Plymouth firm was fined nearly $19,000 for repeated nuisance odor violations last year that occurred after laws were put into place to regulate them, Maine Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Karl Wilkins said in a Thursday email.
“SPI agreed to a civil monetary penalty of $18,980 for violations relating to odor,” Wilkins said.
Diverting the waste temporarily during the high-complaint summer months was a “business decision,” Johnston said.
Casella Organics, which has operated a composting facility in Unity called Hawk Ridge for 25 years, is handling the Plymouth company’s in-state waste that comes from wastewater treatment facilities in nine towns, according to Jen McDonnell, director of sales and marketing for Casella Organics.
“Most of it we are taking to our composting facility,” McDonnell said. “If there is not space there, we have had to shuffle things around. Since this is so new, it can go to a landfill.”
Casella is also talking to Soil Prep about handling its out-of-state sludge and septage providers through other Casella facilities outside of Maine, she said.
“We’ve been in the industry for a long time and we’re certainly well versed,” McDonnell said. “Our position is: We want to help the wastewater treatment plants stay operational.”
The temporary waste diversion will cut back most operations at the Soil Preparation plant, but not all, Wilkins said.
“It’s our understanding that SPI’s immediate plan for the site includes some clean-out (e.g. pad and lagoons), consolidation of what will remain of the processing (shredding) operation for the finished N-Viro product, and distribution of that product to agricultural users,” the DEP spokesman said. “SPI has stated that they plan to pursue a gasification technology for eventual use at the Plymouth site, but they have no further information to share at this time.”
The company, which employs about 20-25 people, got a DEP permit in 2014 to install a biosolids gasification line designed to reduce odors in a closed-looped process that would “virtually eliminate odors,” Johnston said, but a bankruptcy with the producer has delayed the installation, and the company is still working to secure financing for the $15 million investment.
Getting investors interested in Maine and investing in waste processing is something “that is difficult,” Johnston said. “It’s hard getting money into Maine,” he said.
Soil Preparation “will be evaluating the level of staffing during this temporary period of lower activity at the site,” Johnston said in a Friday email.
Fredette said, in his opinion, it would be best if Soil Prep stopped operations until they have the financing for the new gasification technology.
“You don’t get to pollute and make money while you say you’re having a hard time getting financing,” the local state representative said. “If you have the technology, you should use it.
“It’s about being a good neighbor,” Fredette said.
Soil Prep has used alkaline stabilization with subsequent accelerated drying, known as the N-Viro Soil Process, since 2000, to produce the fertilizer. The process includes stockpiling the N-Viro Soil on the property to dry while exposed to the outside air, which is the main reason local residents within smelling distance complain.
Then, when it rains, the water washes contaminants into the soil, the DEP has discovered. Contamination was first discovered in 2011 when the company was ordered to dig wells on its property and begin testing for pollution. Groundwater tests conducted by the Maine DEP in 2015 at Soil Prep showed contamination that exceeded state drinking water regulations, according to the DEP data. Those test results spurred a number of concerned residents to form a group called the Plymouth Environmental Action Team, which started spreading the word about the violations last fall in hopes quicker action would be taken by Maine DEP to rectify the problem.
“It’s trying to deal with all the issues we’re dealing with and be responsive,” Johnston said. “It’s very, very difficult dealing with this product.”