The scrap metal company that owns the landfill which once accepted waste from Bucksport’s paper mill is once again at the center of local concern that it might not comply with state orders to close it by the end of December.
After years of attempts to reopen the landfill and with its mandated closure date approaching, the company has explored transferring or, according to Bucksport officials, amending its license. The landfill is owned by Bucksport Mill, LLC, a subsidiary of Montreal-based American Iron and Metal.
Its exploratory steps to do so have met with strong resistance from local government and a group of 13 concerned citizens, who sent letters to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection this week opposing any license changes that could allow the site to remain open past the end of the year or start accepting waste again. It’s not clear how likely those outcomes are.
The local objections are based on environmental concerns and the company’s past actions in Bucksport, which town officials have found frustrating and which have fed a distrust that has grown into a refusal to negotiate with the company.
“Bucksport Mill’s history with this facility is defined by neglect and bad faith,” Town Manager Jacob Gran wrote. “That pattern cannot continue.”
It’s the latest chapter in two complex environmental issues left over from the mill’s closure that have cost Bucksport time and money as it tries to deal with AIM. The company’s interest in a license transfer has aggravated local doubts that it will close the site on deadline.
“AIM has every intention of meeting any DEP-mandated requirement,” project manager David Bryant said Thursday when asked if it would meet the deadline.
He declined to comment on whether the company planned to pursue transferring or amending its license. Bryant said that in the absence of any application filed with the state, Bucksport’s concerns are based on feelings and rumors rather than facts.
American Iron and Metal bought the Verso Paper mill and its holdings after the mill shuttered in 2014. It has sold off mill site properties, but still owns the 109-acre landfill and three area dams built on Alamoosook Lake, Silver Lake and Toddy Pond to support papermaking.
Under its current state license, the landfill can only accept certain types of waste, and only from the former mill site. The DEP in 2023 ordered the dormant landfill to be permanently closed because it wasn’t meeting the requirements of that license.
Issues included a lack of documentation of proof of liability insurance, regular inspections, water quality testing, and maintenance work on parts of its leachate collection system, according to the DEP. Parts of its north slope had also not been closed despite orders to do so.
AIM has since asked the department for deadline extensions and made repeated attempts to keep the landfill open, including trying to sell it — a 2024 proposal that delayed submission of its closure plan and led then-town manager Susan Lessard to go on a “fishing expedition” emailing Maine town managers to warn potential buyers. AIM had earlier tried to partner with the town to accept other types of waste, which residents considered but shot down in 2023.
In September, AIM proposed using the landfill for mercury-contaminated dredged material from upcoming remediation efforts on the Penobscot River. Councilors refused to hear a presentation on the idea because of the company’s history.
“We owe it to people not to bring hazardous waste to our town,” Councilor Tracey Hair said at the time. “I don’t even want to hear from them.”
AIM said last year that it would start the landfill closure process in 2025, but did not.
Residents have also said they worry the closure work won’t be put out to bid on time for the company to meet the deadline.
The company had a pre-application meeting with DEP to discuss transferring its license in December and met with the department again Thursday morning on an unspecified subject, a DEP spokesperson confirmed. It might also ask the state to amend the landfill license, according to the town.
Gran said Bucksport believes AIM wants to transfer its license to a subsidiary to become a generator-owned landfill. That would require the company to be producing landfill-bound waste, which its past filings haven’t proven, he said.
No application had been filed as of Thursday. Bryant said he would respond to local concerns if they could show him a factual basis, such as an application made to the state.
“The factual record is a public record, and anybody who wants to see what the facts are can look at the public record,” he said.
Letting the landfill open again would be “reckless” and subject Bucksport to more harm on top of what it’s spent years addressing, Gran wrote.
The town also said AIM appears to be trying to amend the license before transferring it, which Gran said suggests it’s trying to get around regulations.
He also accused AIM of making false and misleading statements about the landfill in past discussions with the town.
“Any approval of a license transfer intended to reopen or continue operations will be met with immediate and forceful opposition,” Gran wrote. “The Town of Bucksport is fully prepared to pursue every available remedy to ensure that the closure mandate is enforced without exception.”
The concerned citizens group also highlighted the landfill’s age and construction, and said that even with the proposed closure plan, they see a “substantial risk” of future harm to residents, the Penobscot River, groundwater and land from contaminated leachate, including PFAS. The landfill’s current license allows untreated leachate to drain directly into the river.
In a response to their letters, department commissioner Melanie Loyzim said applicants would need to notify the town 30 days before submitting any application to transfer or amend a license. The license holder has to meet its requirements — which now includes closure — and submitting a transfer or amendment application wouldn’t delay that.
A transfer application takes 120 days to process and an amendment takes 540, according to Loyzim.
So far, the town has spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to “hold Bucksport Mill accountable,” according to Gran, in its management of the landfill and the three aging area dams it has petitioned the state to abandon.
Residents surrounding the Alamasook and Toddy lakes voted last fall to form quasi-municipal watershed management districts that could take over ownership of those dams.
Bucksport has said it is interested in owning the Silver Lake dam in town if voters approve. That’s been delayed by complicated ownership issues and water rights on the three lakes, which also has delayed transferring ownership of the Toddy and Alamoosook dams.