Orrington has been a community of common-sense living since before the Revolutionary War. Orrington was born as an agricultural society blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Its residents have been dedicated to innovation and stick-to-itiveness.
As you drive through Orrington you might notice the old houses all have a barn once used to shelter livestock, store hay, support agriculture, farming, forestry and, yes, enclose the outhouse.
Sustainable is the best way to describe Orrington residents.
Most are aware of the huge debate about the future of municipal solid waste in the Bangor region. Every community is struggling with the question of handling and disposal of trash.
As a member of the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resource Committee, we have encouraged Maine to adhere to the solid waste hierarchy: to reclaim, recycle, reuse, compost, turn waste into energy and, lastly, landfill. The consensus is to separate organics and reduce volume disposed of in our landfills. We all agree on those goals and objectives.
For the last two years we struggled with legislation I sponsored to look differently at the problem and create opportunities from this challenge.
Orrington and Bucksport are positioned to become the solution — and, at the same time, the catalyst to reset a lagging economy.
Orrington and Bucksport have the latest upgraded power transmission lines, deep water, rail, power plants, natural gas, public sewer and water, a production landfill, roads and bridges and plenty of developable land.
The nasty debate between the PERC waste-to-energy plant and its minor partner, the Municipal Review Committee, makes no sense to me. MRC continues to claim PERC can no longer do business after 2018 and promotes its own program, the construction of the Fiberight facility in Hampden, as the solution.
This argument appears to be flawed.
The MRC-Fiberight process combines organics into the trash, which is contrary to the Legislature’s goal. Organics also are the heaviest component of trash, which drives up the tipping fee (the cost of disposal).
MRC’s state approval process has had false starts and misguided direction. Its requests to locate a landfill in an inappropriate location, a slow-moving application with the Department of Environmental Protection because of the need to provide additional documents and the high cost to purchase and develop property — all new infrastructure — become quite curious.
Also, the MRC application allows a pass-through option to send all trash collected until 2020 directly to the landfill in Norridgewock without any processing. This senselessly diminishes the remaining volumes of our precious landfill capacity. The DEP should, at least, demand that trash collection, until the MRC facility is built, be taken to PERC to burn and create energy.
Like before the Revolutionary War, Orrington still provides the solution for this challenge. Orrington, home to PERC, has an existing facility with a track record of handling our trash and creating energy with a proven process. Orrington has available land with existing improvements. And Orrington is more than happy to meet the trash challenge all communities face with excitement and enthusiasm.
Rep. Richard Campbell, R-Orrington, represents District 130 in the Maine House. He is the ranking House Republican on the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee.