A proposed expansion at the Juniper Ridge landfill has left Old Town, Maine, residents pressing for more information. The plan would reach into three acres of wetlands even as the facility already manages PFAS-related waste streams.
Here's what to know
At a Juniper Ridge Advisory meeting in Old Town, public concern focused on two connected issues: the wetlands included in the proposal and how the facility handles PFAS-related leachate. WABI reported that the expansion would affect three acres of wetlands, a detail residents said raised the stakes for runoff and water-quality risks.
When officials explained where PFAS at the landfill comes from, they said construction and demolition debris accounts for the largest share, about 35 percent. They also pointed to incinerator ash, special waste including fuel-truck discharge, and asbestos.
The larger question is whether a project framed as a public benefit justifies putting more strain on the host community and the surrounding waters.
More background
Heavy rain was a major part of the objection. Because Old Town already takes in around 52% of Maine's trash, neighbors said adding wetland acreage to the landfill footprint increases the chance that stronger storms could push runoff past the site and into local waterways.
Neighbors also tied those worries to the kinds of waste handled there. PFAS—often called "forever chemicals" because they persist in the environment—came up alongside construction debris, incinerator ash, and other special waste streams, reinforcing residents' view that the proposal carries environmental and public health implications beyond a routine land-use decision.
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Another unresolved point was where treatment would occur. Officials said Maine's public benefit determination does not require PFAS treatment to happen in any particular place, which residents took as a sign that a key piece of the plan remains unsettled even as the community is asked to accept further impacts.
What's being done?
Officials say PFAS treatment at Juniper Ridge focuses on leachate rather than other contaminants, and the current plan is to send that leachate 20 miles away to a separate wastewater treatment facility.
An official said, "After it's been treated, it will either be taken by pipeline to a wastewater treatment facility or be trucked to its further destination of a wastewater treatment facility. So they have to say, they have to get the phone up and say to us, okay, we're putting this on bypass, something that we started doing in 2000."
Project officials said the transport of leachate and other cancer-causing materials would be handled with an emphasis on regulatory compliance and public safety. Even with those assurances, residents continued to object as officials said the same standards would guide the project going forward.
Where can I learn more?
The concerns raised in Old Town echo fights elsewhere over landfill expansion, PFAS, and who gets a say in how waste is managed. Coverage from North Carolina, Tennessee, and California shows how those battles play out around approvals, contamination concerns, and hazardous waste handling.
• In North Carolina, residents sued after a landfill was linked to the state's highest PFAS in tap water.
• In Tennessee, residents warned rural towns were outgunned as lawmakers weighed changes to landfill control.
• In North Carolina, an audit warned that hundreds still haven't been checked at old landfill sites.
• In Napa Valley, landfill workers threatened suit over a toxic waste disposal practice they called deliberate pollution.
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