John Casella apparently thinks that the only way to safely operate our state landfill is to continue importing waste from hundreds of miles away (“Commentary: Managing municipal biosolids is a complex issue that requires collaboration,” March 23). He wants to delay implementation of L.D. 1639, which passed the Maine Senate unanimously.
The Casella premise is that only oversized bulky waste (OBW) can stabilize sludge in landfills. During appeals to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, I challenged Casella to produce scientific or engineering studies that prove OBW’s excellence for stability. A search of waste industry practices yielded nothing to back up their OBW preference.
My opinion is that Casella has been sending its OBW from collection points across the Northeast to Juniper Ridge Landfill. Now, this profit stream is threatened. There are better options to stabilize sludge, such as sand. What prevents use of other materials is that it hurts their profits.
I wonder about the ability of Casella to operate our Juniper Ridge Landfill safely. Before the landfill became an unstable mess, managers should have hauled in better bulking materials that they had readily available. Instead, they endangered their workers and our environment.
It appears that Casella is not a reliable “partner,” despite its dominance of the market, which Sen. Rick Bennett detailed in a recent opinion piece (March 9). Stability should not be secondary to profit.
Ed Spencer
Old Town
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