By Michael Shepherd - March 14, 2023
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📷 Phil Besse shakes the separators on a machine used in the dewatering process of waste at the Bangor Wastewater Treatment Plan on March 1, 2023. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

Good morning from Augusta. State and legislative offices are closed on Tuesday due to the storm bringing fierce winds and heavy snow to Maine.

What we're watching today

Bangor infighting underscores the tense politics of Maine's sludge problem. After Bangor's city manager and wastewater plant leader issued an open letter calling on state lawmakers to solve a sludge crisis, the city's legislative delegation wrote a Bangor Daily News Op-Ed on Tuesday saying those officials were amplifying a controversial landfill operator's talking points.

This rare infighting between officials in a major Maine city highlights the difficulty of a lasting solution to the state's sludge problem. This contaminated sludge had been building at more than 30 wastewater plants after Casella Waste Systems abruptly said it had to dial back the amount of sludge contaminated with bacteria and "forever chemicals" dumped at a state landfill.

A short-term fix emerged last week that will allow some sludge to continue to be dumped in Old Town while more will be trucked to New Brunswick. But a long-term solution may require major concessions either from private industry or politicians, neither of which like to concede much.

Two recently passed laws are at the heart of the debate. Maine addressed the health crisis around forever chemicals known as PFAS by advancing reforms including one banning the spreading of wastewater sludge on agricultural land. Around the same time in 2022, the Legislature closed a loophole that had long allowed out-of-state waste to go into the Old Town landfill.

Both of those laws passed easily. But Casella said at the time that the latter measure would create problems by taking away a form of waste that is used to stabilize sludge to limit runoff, predicting rising costs and consequences like mining of virgin soils to put in the landfill as trash.

Since the sludge problem escalated, Casella has continued to blame those two laws for many of the issues. Bangor municipal officials referenced both in their letter, which says the Legislature should take steps to establish other avenues for sludge disposal. The city's Democratic legislative delegation shot back by saying Casella is "trying to scare us" into accepting its preferred terms.

"We urge Bangor residents to unequivocally state that for-profit vendors should not be the determinant of our health and environment," they said. "We will stand by the council and city officials if they choose to hold Casella accountable."

The sludge spreading ban is almost certainly not going anywhere given the horror stories of contamination that has ruined farms and livelihoods across the state. Republican lawmakers have set their sights on the out-of-state waste bill, with Rep. Scott Cyrway, R-Albion, saying recently that it has had "unintended consequences."

Any solution to this problem seems like it is going to require a delicate balance that includes not completely throwing out state standards while figuring out a way to let Casella get more waste into the landfill to handle Maine sludge. It will be a delicate political balance for everybody involved.

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News and notes

📷 Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey waves to state legislators on Dec. 2, 2020, at the Augusta Civic Center. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

⛓️ Restarting parole has big obstacles in the governor and attorney general.

◉ A seven-hour public hearing on Monday underscored the difficult fight ahead for advocates of reestablishing parole in Maine as they ran up against testimony from the Department of Corrections, Attorney General Aaron Frey and victims of violent crimes.

◉ Maine repealed parole in 1976 with the advent of the modern-day criminal code that standardized sentences, although a parole board still exists for the small number of living prisoners who were convicted by that time. A commission formed by the Legislature backed bringing parole back in a recent report, and a bill from Sen. Pinny Beebe-Center, D-Rockland, aims to do that.

◉ But Frey echoed crime victims by saying it would traumatize victims again and there may not be community services to prevent reoffending, the Portland Press Herald reported. Corrections Commissioner Randall Liberty took another tack, saying in written testimony that his department's early-release program is sufficient and should be supported further as an alternative.

◉ In a Democratic-led Augusta, opposition from both the governor and attorney general will make it hard for any bill to go anywhere.

💧 The federal government sets strict limits for PFAS in drinking water.

◉ In a landmark move, President Joe Biden's administration rolled out new standards for "forever chemicals" in drinking water, saying it will require water districts to monitor for six PFAS chemicals and require them to reduce levels if they measure above 4 parts per trillion.

◉ That is a very low mark. It is below the long-standing 70 parts per trillion advisory threshold backed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After a host of world-leading regulations on PFAS in Maine, the state's interim drinking water standard is 20 parts per trillion.

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What we're reading

💰 Maine cities and counties lag in spending a wave of COVID-19 aid.

🦞 Lobster groups sued a California aquarium that red-listed the fishery.

🚨 State police want to kill a bill to fund Penobscot County deputies.

🪚 A new Maine dorm will showcase new wood technology.

🦭 Once-wayward seals will be set free. Here's your soundtrack.

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