Regulators will have more time to determine whether the public will benefit from expanding the state-owned landfill in Old Town.
The deadline for completing the review of Casella Waste Systems’ proposal to expand Juniper Ridge Landfill was Aug. 23. But regulators now have until Sept. 23, with a deadline for the public to submit comments set for Sept. 5, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
That’s to give staff more time to “thoroughly” review Casella’s application and supporting documents, receive and review public comments, and give the public time to review information, the department said Thursday morning.
“The application is lengthy and addresses complex issues, and the applicant recently submitted additional information in response to a Department request,” the department said in a news release.
If approved, Juniper Ridge’s footprint would expand by 61 acres, providing another 11.9 million cubic yards of capacity and extending the landfill’s life more than another 11 years, according to the Department of Environmental Protection, which cited Casella’s five-year waste acceptance rate.
The contract to operate Juniper Ridge is between the state and a Casella Waste Systems subsidiary, New England Waste Services of Maine LLC.
The proposal to expand Juniper Ridge comes as Casella has seen a surge in trash being dumped there. Maine towns and cities are now landfilling 50 percent more trash, with dumping up 30 percent at Juniper Ridge, a spokesperson said earlier this year.
At this rate, Juniper Ridge Landfill could run out of space by 2028, five years sooner than expected.
That’s due to the closure of other waste disposal facilities in Greater Bangor.
A state-of-the-art trash plant in Hampden, which served 115 municipalities, stopped operating almost four years ago. Last May, the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co.’s trash plant in Orrington that served 44 towns also ceased operations and even stopped accepting trash from its hometown last September.
The Hampden trash plant has been sold and could reopen as early as 2025. Meanwhile, PERC has undergone multiple changes in ownership since an auction last year and efforts are ongoing to resume operations there.
But the proposal has drawn strong opposition from neighbors, environmental groups and the Penobscot Nation, with some raising concerns about an unexplained fire last year and cancer-causing per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds — also known as PFAS and “forever chemicals” — leaching into the Penobscot River watershed.
Opponents of the expansion also argue that a new state law requiring environmental justice be considered when building or expanding a landfill should stop any further expansion of Juniper Ridge.
