Update: As of Tuesday, September 11th, 2007, it appears that plans for the Casella Dump in Lewiston have been stopped, at least for now.

Maine: Wasteland
Lewiston Plans To Privatize Landfill, Import Out of State Waste

Over one hundred people filled the room beyond capacity at the August 27th Solid Waste Task Force meeting at Lewiston City Hall, asking questions and voicing their opposition to the City's plans to privatize the City landfill. Politicians in the City of Lewiston are pushing for rapid approval of plans to enter the City into a contract with Casella Waste Systems that would outsource operations of the Publicly-owned landfill and allow it to be filled with out of state waste.

ABOUT CASELLA

Casella is a for-profit company from Rutland, VT, involved with shipping, sorting, burning, and landfilling waste. The more waste it takes in, the more money it makes. It is a company with a strong and powerful presence in Maine politics, and is a big funder of Governor Baldacci. Casella goes under many names, including KTI, Pine Tree Waste, MERC, and New England Organics (importing out-of-state sludge to Unity, Maine). It is a company with a history of changing rules to its advantage once it gets a contract with a town - people in Biddeford, Hampden, Old Town, and Bethlehem, NH can confirm that.

DETAILS OF THE PLAN

If Casella is allowed to get the contract with the city of Lewiston, it plans to fill the city landfill to capacity with out-of-state construction and demolition debris (CDD) in 30 years. City officials have stated that the landfill has a 620 year lifespan at current rates of use, taking only local waste. Under Casella’s plan, the landfill would expand from 15.8 to 80 acres, growing into a 400 foot high mountain of trash, making it the second highest point in Lewiston. The landfill is 250 feet from the Androscoggin River. Even with the best technology, the EPA states all landfills leak. That means poisons will find their way into the water, fish and wildlife, and the bodies of our families.

CDD - DESTINATION MAINE

CDD waste means big profits for Casella, especially if Lewiston can be talked into taking Southern New England's CDD waste. Other states don't want it. This waste takes up lots of space and it's toxic. CDD includes arsenic-treated wood, lead, asbestos, polyvinyl chloride, mercury, and other toxins known to cause cancer, birth defects, and learning disabilities. Massachusetts has banned landfilling raw CDD and New Hampshire recently banned incineration of CDD.

Meanwhile, Maine communities are at a disadvantage when faced with unwanted landfills, incinerators, or sludge spreading. Unlike most other states in the Northeast, local communities in Maine no longer have the power of home rule on waste. In 1995 the State Government enacted a law that states that towns cannot enact stricter rules regarding waste than those of the State Government.

The Maine State Government and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have consistently yielded to the demands of waste industry lobbyists. While New Hampshire was taking steps to ban CDD incineration, the Maine government was approving a law pushed for by industry lobbyists that effectively encourages the dumping and burning of CDD as a DEP-approved, profitable, and taxpayer subsidized enterprise.

The anti-home rule law was used recently against people in Brunswick, who voted for a local ordinance banning the spreading of treated sludge on town lands. This ordinace came about in order to stop the City Government from spreading sludge from Casella-owned New England Organics on the town playing field, which sits on top of the town’s water supply. The ordinance was ruled effectively invalid because it was determined that since the sludge had already been spread on the land, the land was legally now a “solid waste facility” and as a result, the community couldn’t place a ban on sludge spreading, since State law allows it.

NO NEW COMMERCIAL LANDFILLS

The plan to give control of local landfill operations to a for-profit commercial company like Casella also effectively violates the Maine law that bans any new commercial landfills. That law went on the books back in the 80's when people in Washington County succeeded in stopping a commercial landfill planned by KTI (the same KTI that was later bought by Casella) that would have been filled with out-of-state toxic waste.
Read more about this in Nancy Oden's “A Short History of Waste in Maine” at: http://www.myspace.com/nooutofstatewasteinmaine

People pushed for the law because they learned that as long as a landfill is locally owned and operated, local people have the choice as to what goes into it, and where it comes from. Once the landfill becomes commercially owned or operated, that local control is gone, because the waste legally becomes a tradeable commodity. Federal Courts have ruled that the Interstate Commerce Clause applies to waste. The Interstate Commerce Clause makes it illegal for a local community to enact any laws that would block free trade of commodities across State borders within the US. Therefore, a town cannot simply say “we don’t want out of state waste in our landfill”, if that landfill is commercially operated, because the out of state waste being imported by the commercial landfill company is simply another commodity, another item of trade between States.

The City of Lewiston is attempting to get around this law by keeping the landfill publicly owned, but allowing a private for-profit company to operate it. In some ways this could be even more dangerous than selling the land outright, since once Casella has filled the landfill with their waste, they can walk away and leave the Public to deal with the toxic mess. According to City Administrator Jim Bennett, this deal is modeled on a similar deal that was pushed through in 2002 in Old Town, that sold Georgia Pacific's landfill to the Maine Public and gave operating rights to Casella, allowing it to fill the landfill with out of state construction and demolition debris.
Read more about this in Alex Irvine's article, "Dumping Ground" at: http://www.myspace.com/nooutofstatewasteinmaine

If the City is allowed to privatize the landfill, local people lose their ability to decide what goes into the landfill and have an effective voice in how it is operated. People across Maine will feel the results of this decision, because if one town privatizes its landfill (and the Attorney General allows it to go unchallenged,) it is likely that many other Maine towns needing some quick money will be pressured by waste companies to do the same. If this happens, Maine communities already at a disadvantage because they don’t have the power of home rule on waste, will lose even more power to decide what is done on their land.

FROM PAPER PLANTATION TO WASTE PLANTATION

The push for Maine to take other state’s unwanted construction and demolition waste is also coming in response to the shut downs and layoffs at paper mills across the State. The big landowning paper companies having stripped most of what is profitable for them to use of the Maine woods, and much of the forest land in Maine being replaced with subdivisions, summer homes, and resorts. Companies like International Paper have found it much more profitable to operate in places with longer growing seasons, like Brazil, where they raise super-fast-growing gentically-engineered cloned eucalyptus trees for paper. The Paper companies still have industrial operations here in Maine, and State and local governments doing anything they can think of to keep those operations active and on the tax rolls.

Luckily for the Paper Companies, most all those paper mills also have dumps, biomass boilers used to get rid of unusable wood and generate electricity for the factories, and wastewater “treatment” systems, all ready to process waste. So, for example, at Georgia Pacific, the former pulp sludge dump has become the new “Juniper Ridge” (aka Mt Baldacci) State-owned landfill, operated by Casella. Casella is filling the landfill with out of state construction and demolition debris and planning to expand it several times over. The “biomass boiler” is a 20+ year old incinerator from Athens that was built to burn plain wood chips , but has been licensed to incinerate CDD chips as fuel, despite repeatedly clogging up and spewing lead and dioxin-filled soot on those unfortunate enough to be downwind. SAPPI paper in Westbrook is also planning to incinerate this CDD in its biomass boiler, and similar proposals have been made for Millinocket.

GREEN MONEY FOR TOXIC WASTE

Companies get big tax-credits for generating electricity with these biomass boilers, since they are considered by law to be producing “renewable energy”. So the toxic CDD that other states don’t want anything to do with is being shipped to Maine for use as a “clean,” “green,” and “renewable” fuel, receiving millions in Public money subsidies.

Only a small portion of the CDD that’s imported into Maine can be incinerated. That’s what Casella’s planned “processing facilities” in Westbrook and Lewiston are for. These facilities process the CDD “fuel” as it comes in, sending what can be chipped and burned to the “biomass boiler” incinerators in Old Town, Westbrook, and other unfortunate destinations. The larger portion that can’t be burned, and the highly toxic ash that remains from what is burned, Casella sends to its landfills in Hampden, Old Town, and it hopes, Lewiston.

MORE WASTE, MORE MONEY, AND THE MAGIC PROCESS

When Casella operates those landfills, it also gets paid “tipping fees” for any waste dumped in the landfills (the Maine Department of Environmental Protect also gets a cut for every ton.) The more waste it brings in, the more tipping fee money it gets.

On top of all this, the CDD processing facilities act as legal magicians, turning any out-of-state waste that hits the processing room floors instantly into “Maine waste.” This has never been written in law, but instead comes from meetings that Casella had with the State Planning Office, and is a definition apparently respected by the State Government.

RUSH FOR APPROVAL, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

Some Lewiston Politicians are trying to rush this deal through, pushing for a vote to approve the contract before they get voted out in November. City Administrator Jim Bennett, who is not elected by the Public, but chosen by the City Council, appears to be the person most strongly pushing this deal. Bennett also reportedly spoke earlier this year with Tom Emero, of GenPower, about getting a CDD waste incinerator built in Lewiston. GenPower tried and failed to build an incinerator in Athens, Maine, and is now looking for new locations.

Bennett has a number of supporters for his plans on the City Council, several of whom will not be in office after the November election. This plan also has supporters on the Lewiston Solid Waste Task Force, including Leo Larochelle, former facility manager of ERRCO, a construction and demolition waste processing facility in Epping, NH. Larochelle is reported to be a former manager of the Bethlehem, NH landfill, now owned by Casella, though it is unclear whether he was employed there after Casella took over operations.

City officials originally stated that they needed a report from the Solid Waste Task Force before sending the Casella plan to a vote, but with the Task Force looking like it might not have a report ready in time for a November vote - they have scores of unanswered questions - it appears that Lewiston politicians plan to move foward on getting the question on the ballot even without a report. Furthermore, all questions for the ballot are supposed to be submitted 60 days prior to the vote, but it appears that the City politicians may change their rules and allow themselves less time than is required by law in order to get the question on the November vote.

THE MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL

Many people in Lewiston became aware of this deal only in the past few weeks, and much of the time all that's heard is something about recycling and lower taxes. The first that many people in Lewiston heard about the deal came in the form of a phone call survey, asking if they'd like to save money on their taxes and have single stream recycling. That survey also asked people to rate, on a scale from 1 to 5, their opinions of various groups that have taken a stance against the Casella deal, including Maine People's Alliance, Toxics Action Center, and CAPIT (Citizens Against Pollution in Town, the group started in Athens to help stop the GenPower incinerator.
Read more about CAPIT at: maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/5409/index.php

The survey was apparently conducted by Critical Insights, a Public Opinion Polling Firm based in Portland that works in close collaboration with Pierce Atwood, the law and lobby firm that represents Casella.

RECYCLING AND TAXES

So what of the promises of lower taxes and recycling? Well, Lewiston already has recycling, and if it wants to improve it, it can do so without privatizing the landfill and importing out-of-state waste. The amounts the taxes are claimed to go down involves much questionable juggling of numbers.
See Representative Elaine Makas' Casella Op Ed at: maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/5408/index.php

Even if the short term savings amount to anything (based on Casella's record in other towns, you can bet even the short-term savings will be less than what's being currently promised), the taxes will inevitably go up in 30 years (or less) when Lewiston has run out of landfill space and has to pay some other place to deal with its trash.

MERC AND HARPER’S DEVELOPMENT

Much of the pressure to approve this deal is coming from other towns. Biddeford and Saco have been host to the Casella-owned MERC incinerator for many years. They have faced numerous problems with emissions violations, truck trafic, constantly increasing amounts of trash, and a contract that gives the local communities little power but allows Casella to change its plans essentially at will.

This incinerator has prevented investors from putting money into downtown development, since investors have not wanted to live or work in a place plagued by the stink and trash truck traffic of the incinerator. People have fought for years to shut down the incinerator, but have had little success.

That may change, now that some influential businessmen with government and waste industry ties have taken an interest in the area. In the past year, Harper's Development announced plans for a development in old mill buildings on Saco Island, across from the incinerator in Biddeford. This project is unlikely to find investors who want office space or condos in the old mill building as long as the incinerator is in operation across the river.

Harper's Development leaders include former Lewiston mayor John Orestis, and Democratic Party funder and policy-maker Severin Beliveau, of the law and lobby firm Preti, Flaherty, and Beliveau. Beliveau was the registered lobbyist for incinerator company GenPower. Former Senator George Mitchell, who has been a Senior Counsel for Preti, Flaherty, and Beliveau, is also a former Director of KTI (which was since bought out by Casella). Since the announcement of the Saco Island Development Plan, Biddeford City officials have announced plans to shut down the Casella incinerator.

THE WHITE PAPER

This Summer an unsigned and uncredited “White Paper” began circulating around City Council offices in Biddeford.
See “White Paper” by going to: http://www.myspace.com/nooutofstatewasteinmaine

This paper explains that “A coalition of municipalities have committed to pursuing the following goals in order to implement a long-term action plan for efficient and effective recycling and solid waste management in the state of Maine.”

The White Paper goes on to lay out plans to shut down the Casella-owned MERC incinerator in Biddeford in 5 years, permit and start a CDD processing facility in Westbrook (there are also plans for SAPPI paper in Westbrook to start incinerating CDD), and create a “public-private partnership between Lewiston and Casella pursuant to and based on the recommendations made by the Lewiston Solid Waste Task Force enabling Lewiston to realize economic benefits from ownership and management of its landfill.” According to this paper, “The municipalities have obtained a commitment from Casella, the owner of the MERC facility and the Westbrook Transfer Station, to faithfully pursue these goals and results.” This plan pits the towns of Biddeford and Saco against Westbrook and Lewiston, laying out a promise to close the Biddeford incinerator in exchange for Lewiston and Westbrook taking the unwanted, largely out-of-state waste.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

On Tuesday September 4th, at 6pm, there will be a Solid Waste Task Force Meeting at City Hall with a City Council meeting following. The Casella contract was originally expected to be on the agenda for the City Council meeting. However, after the large turnout at the last Solid Waste Task Force meeting, the City has determined that no members of the Public will be allowed to ask questions at this Task Force Meeting, the Casella deal will not be on the Council agenda, and a special meeting will be held on Wednesday.

The Wednesday meeting will likely not be bound by the same legal requirements as an official City Council meeting, but will instead be a presentation of the plan by members of the Lewiston Government and Casella, with an opportunity for the Public to ask questions. The Wednesday Public Meeting will start at 6pm at the Multi-Purpose Center at 145 Birch St in Lewiston. The City Council is expected to make a decision regarding whether the Casella deal will go on the November ballot at the Council meeting on Tuesday, September 11th, at City Hall.

COMMUNITIES ORGANIZING

People from throughout Lewiston and surrounding towns have been organizing to learn more about the deal and what they can do about it, and have formed a community group called Don't Dump on ME. They made a presentation at a recent Auburn City Council meeting, and discovered that most of the City Council members were unaware of the landfill plans. The Auburn Council voted to send a letter to the Lewiston City Council urging them not to rush through a November vote before Auburn can have a voice in the decision and learn more about the plan.

Don’t Dump on Me is also working with other groups throughout New England. These groups include Maine People's Alliance, Toxics Action Center, We The People, a community group in the Old Town area that's been fighting Casella and the State of Maine's landfill and incinerator projects in Hampden and Old Town, and CAPIT (Citizens Against Pollution in Town), a community group formed in Athens that successfully stopped plans by GenPower to build an incinerator that would have burned construction and demolition debris imported from Southern New England.

People involved with Don't Dump on ME, We the People, and Clean Air for Rockland recently joined together to start a "Bucket Brigade", taking air samples to test for toxins from polluting companies in their communities. Read more about the Bucket Brigade at: http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/midcoast.aspx?articleid=153700&zoneid=179

Other groups and individuals that have shared information about their related work include people from Biddeford and Saco who have been working to shut down the Casella-owned MERC incinerator in Biddeford, people from Bethlehem, NH, which is currently in legal struggles with Casella over its ever-expanding landfill in their town, Westbrook for Clean Air, a community group working to stop the SAPPI paper mill in Westbrook from incinerating 1.5 million pounds a day of CDD shipped in from out of state, and Clean Earth Maine, a community group based in Washington County that successfully stopped a several hundred acre landfill planned by KTI (the company that operates the CDD processing facility in Lewiston, which was bought by Casella several years ago), and is now fighting plans for a massive CDD landfill planned to be built in Marion Township on Porcupine Mountain.

Get involved! Be in touch!

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Upcoming Meetings On Casella Dump Deal:

Tuesday, September 4th, 6pm, City Hall, Lewiston
Solid Waste Task Force Meeting followed by City Council Meeting. The Task Force will discuss the deal, but members of the Public will not be allowed to ask questions.

Wednesday, September 5th, 6pm, Multi-Purpose Center, Birch St, Lewiston:
Moderated Public Meeting. Members of the City Government and Casella Waste Systems are expected to make a presentation on the dump deal, and then members of the Public will be allowed to ask questions.

Tuesday, September 11th, 7pm, City Hall, Lewiston:
City Council meeting to decide whether to put Casella dump deal plan on November ballot.

Don't Dump on ME and other community groups also meet and have mailing lists.

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Groups Working to Stop Toxic Waste in Our Communities:

Don't Dump on ME, Jo Ann or Dan Gregoire, 784-3114, djgregoire (at) adelphia.net

CAPIT, c/o Hillary Lister, PO Box 129, Athens, ME 04912, 649-5980, hillary (at) maineindymedia.org

Clean Earth Maine, PO Box 1, Jonesboro, ME 04648 , 434-6228, nancyoden (at) cleanearth.net

We The People, PO Box 471, Milford, ME 04461, 827-5358, gibbsmilford (at) aol.com

Westbrook for Clean Air, c/o Robert Foley, consulting (at) seppro.com

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). 510-993-9490 ext.102, dave (at) noburn.org

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Learn More About Casella’s Record in Other Towns:

Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts:
www.toxicsaction.org/casellareportandcover.pdf

Biddeford: www.futureofbiddeford.org

Old Town and Hampden:
www.wethepeoplemaine.com
www.commoncoordinates.com/oldtowndump

Bethlehem, New Hampshire: Environmental Action, Northern New Hampshire, PO Box 268, Bethlehem, NH 03574,
www.davidandgoliathtrust.org/history.html

Angelica, New York: www.homestead.com/concernedcitizens/Casella.html

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Check out this short video on Casella in Lewiston by Roundpoint Movies (www.roundpointmovies.org) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eHi90fVu1M

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Information Compiled by hillary Lister, hillary (at) maineindymedia.org.