Maine Department of Environmental Protection To Hold Public Hearing On Sending Southern Maine Trash To Old Town Landfill
April 1, 2013
Contact: Samantha Warren, Maine DEP Director of Communications, (207) 287-5842
-Applicants and prequalified intervenors will present testimony at two-day public hearing next week with a comment session for the general public on Tuesday night-
AUGUSTA ? The Maine Department of Environmental Protection will hold a two-day public hearing in Augusta next week on a proposal to send in-state municipal solid waste previously incinerated at the Maine Energy Recovery Co. in Biddeford to the state-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town.
The hearing, which is open to the public, will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9 and Wednesday, April 10 at the Governor Hill Mansion at 136 State St.
Over the course of the two days, the applicants and 12 intervenors who are formal parties to the process will present evidence and cross-examine other parties about the application filed with DEP last fall by the State?s Bureau of General Services, which owns the landfill, and Casella, which operates it.
Those intervenors include the cities of Old Town, Biddeford and Saco; Penobscot Energy Recovery Company; the Municipal Review Committee, Inc.; Old Town Fuel and Fiber; ecomaine; Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp.; and Old Town citizens Ed Spencer, Laura and Harry Sanborn, Wanda and David Lincoln, and Ralph Coffman.
While only the applicants and prequalified intervenors can participate in the daytime hearing sessions, DEP will host an open public comment session beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9 to allow the public to weigh-in on the proposal.
Given the statewide significance of the licensing decision, the hearing and comment sessions are being held in centrally-located Augusta.
Written comments are also being accepted and should be sent to Michael Parker, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, 17 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0017 or michael.t.parker@maine.gov.
Since MERC closed at the end of 2012, the municipal waste from 14 southern Maine towns previously sent there is now being sorted at a new Casella-owned transfer station in Westbrook before being incinerated at Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington or ecomaine in Portland, or sent out of state.
More information about Juniper Ridge Landfill, including the application before the department for review, public comments received thus far and pre-hearing testimony submitted by intervenors is available at http://www.maine.gov/dep/waste/
-END-