AUGUSTA, Maine — After an appeal from a nearby resident, the Board of Environmental Protection will decide in July whether to overrule the Department of Environmental Protection decision that backed a partial expansion of Juniper Ridge Landfill.
The appeal by Ed Spencer, who lives less than two miles from the Casella Waste Systems-operated landfill, was accepted by the BEP last week. He will make his case in opposition to DEP’s public benefit determination from earlier this year that favored a 9.35 million cubic yard expansion. Casella wanted to expand by 21.9 million cubic yards.
Spencer, Charles Leithiser of Old Town and Sam Hunting of Orono each appealed to the BEP, arguing that they would be “injured” and harmed by the expansion.
BEP Chairwoman Susan Lessard found Leithiser and Hunting didn’t have standing to appeal because they failed to show they were “aggrieved persons,” largely because their homes are farther from the landfill, BEP executive analyst Cynthia Bertocci said in April.
Lessard determined Spencer did have standing because he lives near the landfill and she agreed with Spencer’s claim that his property and quality of life might be harmed by odors and noise from Juniper Ridge.
The full board backed Lessard’s decision during a board meeting on May 3.
The State Planning Office, which owns Juniper Ridge, and Casella have 30 days from the May 3 meeting to submit a response to Spencer’s appeal now that he has been found to have standing.
Spencer said he agrees with most of what the DEP found in its public benefit determination document but challenges the finding in favor of a limited expansion because he doesn’t see any urgent need for more landfill capacity. He also cited the Legislature’s support of a bill that would allow the Norridgewock landfill to expand and new fees that will be imposed on certain types of waste going into the landfill as further reasons to take a wait-and-see approach.
Spencer said he wants the state to “take a more patient look at what’s going on with waste in Maine.”
Casella has a 30-year contract to provide waste disposal space for the state and is running out of capacity at a faster rate than originally expected. Casella representatives have said they need more room.
Assistant Attorney General Nancy Macirowski, who represents the BEP, said Wednesday that the board will have three options when it meets in July and hears from Casella’s representative and Spencer.
The board can back the DEP’s public benefit determination, which would allow the State Planning Office and Casella to apply to expand the landfill.
The board also can override the DEP’s decision, which would end this landfill expansion effort.
Finally, the BEP has the option of modifying the DEP’s public benefit determination by changing the size of the expansion favored by the DEP.
If the BEP backs the DEP’s public benefit determination and the technical application process begins, a whole new appeals process could begin, according to Macirowski. She said residents could challenge items in the application ranging from odor to traffic to geology.
First STOP bringing in all the out-of-State trash and there would be no need to expand ……. period!!
Going against the mob, good luck.
I am disappointed that the BEP chair dismissed the other two appeals, even though it is a state owned dump, with Massachusetts and New Jersey’s trash trucks ruining our roads. Anyone who is a resident of Maine should have grounds for appeal. I wonder how many of these BEP
people were appointed by Baldacci.
Thankfully the Government Oversight Committee will be taking this and other issues up on May
25th as they continue to investigate Casella.
There is no law in the State that says State employees, appointments or elected officals or their families can’t benifit from decisions they make.
It says “The State Planning Office, which owns Juniper Ridge.”
Is that the same State Planning Office that was eliminated by the governor?
So now LePage controls Juniper Ridge? So whose getting richer? Where is the integrity? Is this the Turnpike story all over again?
Years ago when the DEP and the State were lobbied to close all town/city owned landfills they did. The large landfill owners funded enviromental groups to lobby along side of them to close town/city landfills and it happened. The Dep changed the rules for them.
We need cities and Town to have there own landfills to cut cost..
What corporate funded enviro groups, corporate landfill owners along with the dep would say is Town/cities can’t afford to follow the regulations in place to have a landfill…. Well here is the kicker, neither can they.. but what happens is the first thing that these landfills do is apply for exemptions of the law and they allways get them. So the regulation they claim that towns and cities can’t afford, corporate landfill don’t have to follow because they are given a waver of them.. For one, The DEP told towns/cities they would have to cover their waste everyday and no town/city could afford to haul gravel in everyday. yet the private corporate landfills are allow to use waste(garbage) to cover garbage. they never have to use gravel until they close that pod.. their exempt from the rules. merk/perk needed to lobby for the closing of dumps in order to make their money.. So there you go this whole thing was done to make billons for the few and taxpayer to pay for it. Enviro Groups were funded by these people to lobby.. Everyone was fooled.
P.S. Local and State Government are in business with these people. Where the State and towns get a tonnage rate to dump out of State waste in Maine, there is no one that will protect the people. The State/towns/cities get paid by how much comes into the State, good luck with them helping you.
The landfills filling faster than originally expected…
Who is surprised by that? Casella is making more money than was originally expected…
Taking in more waste than originally expected (or at least disclosed).
There is a pattern here.