Breaking news: MRC to allow Delta Thermo to treat sewage sludge 'in the future'
Tonight, American Aquafarms to present on Zoom
SOMESVILLE - April 28, 2021 - The agency which operates the 115-town recycling program has reached agreement with Delta Thermo Energy, paving the way for DTE to process sewage sludge in the future.
In carefully worded comments by Delta CEO Rob Van Naarden at a public meeting Wednesday morning to update the members of the Municipal Review Committee during which he seemed to contradict himself several times, he indicated he might apply for a DEP permit to process sewage sludge as soon as “a year or two.”
“We are not bringing sewage sludge whatsoever to get this facility running. Emphatically wanna make that clear.“ Van Naarden said. Then he added, “When the time comes to make some modifications a year or two down the road, that may be an issue we want to do. That would require new permits.”
“I know there has been newspaper articles about this,” Van Naarden said. In fact it was Van Naarden who raised the possibility in January when he introduced the idea of treating sewage sludge.
“He’s lying through his teeth and you can quote me on that,” said Jim Vallette, a waste management expert and a vice chair of Southwest Harbor’s Warrant Committee.
Vallette asked several pointed questions during the meeting, but the format - QandA - did not allow for a give and take, or followup questions. Karen Fussell, MRC chair, deflected questions intended for Van Naarden, who, when asked about how many current operations DTE has, answered, “We’ve run a DTE facility outside of Atlantic City, in New Jersey, and also currently in North Central Pennsylvania, just outside of Williamsport.”
But then later he said the New Jersey plant was closed and the equipment moved to Pennsylvania. That New Jersey plant remains closed and Van Naarden allowed that he didn’t know when or if it will re-open. He also refused to answer a question of how big the Pennsylvania facility is.
Fussell answered Bill Lippincott’s question about whether MRC would ever permit the treatment of sewage sludge by saying it was a state DEP matter. “To my question as to whether the MRC would allow sludge as an acceptable waste at the plant in the future, the answer was not No,” Lippincott observed. “The response was that the answer to that question was down the road.”
Then Van Naarden filled in the blanks.
“There’s going to be no burning of anything today, tomorrow, and in the future. That’s not what we do. The concept of incineration, or burning something, to create electricity. Yes it can be done. We don’t do that. We’re not burning anything in that plant. None whatsoever.”
But that’s not what Lippincott asked.
The question was whether the plant would “treat” sewage sludge. Typically, the process involves the pulverization of sludge to produce briquettes which are then incinerated to produce electricity. DTE could sell those briquettes and not burn them itself.
Attorney Jon Pottle of Eaton Peabody, outside counsel for MRC, affirmed that sewage sludge treatment was “not within the scope of the current licenses.”
But once Van Naarden gets the current plant running, MRC indicated it would allow sludge treatment if the DEP approved.
This was clearly a big negotiating win for Van Naarden.
Allowing DTE to treat sewage sludge would be a huge departure from the original MRC promises to the 115 Maine towns which was that the plant in Hampden would achieve 80 percent recycling of municipal waste. The previous owner, Fiberight, operated it for less than a year before having to close it in May 2020 because it ran out of money.
Based on those promises, the 115 towns signed a 15-year, air-tight “joinder” agreement which gave all the leverage to MRC. No individual town may withdraw unilaterally, Fussell reminded members on the call.
Fussell and Van Naarden ignored a final question about Van Naarden’s previous misstatements as reported in The Bangor Daily News on April 10. https://bangordailynews.com/2021/04/10/news/bangor/prospective-hampden-waste-plant-buyer-listed-people-as-technical-advisers-without-their-knowledge/
MDI has several different relationships with MRC. Bar Harbor sorts its own recycling matter before it goes to the Hampden plant. During the shutdown of the plant which is approaching one year, the town has been using a combination of incineration, landfill and a very expensive recycling arrangement with a Waste Management subsidiary. Mount Desert and Tremont are members of the Acadia Disposal District which has not had any recycling since the plant closed, nor has Southwest Harbor which manages its own hauling of waste to Hampden.
QSJ will file a deeper look once the contracts become public. Van Naarden said he hopes to close the deal by the first week of June but it will take almost a year to get the plant back to full operation.
Salmon Farm proponent to hold public meeting tonight on Zoom
SOMESVILLE - This was in my inbox from the Friends of Schoodic Peninsula:
“The Norwegian-owned American Aquafarms (AA), which is proposing to site an industrial scale salmon farm in Frenchman Bay, will hold a Zoom question and answer session about their proposal at 6 p.m., April 28 (tonight).
“A hearing before the Department of Environmental Protection regarding AA's request for a discharge permit will be held Thursday, May 6, at 6 p.m.
“Although the hearing next week is of greater importance, we urge residents who are concerned about this proposal to participate in as many of these meetings as possible to demonstrate the level of interest and concern in our communities about this salmon farm. The proposal is to establish a fish hatchery and processing plant in Prospect Harbor and 30 floating salmon pens, each 150 feet wide, in Frenchman Bay. The company projects it would produce 66 million pounds of salmon each year.”
The information about tonight's Zoom meeting is:
https://bernsteinshur.zoom.us/j/98062645039?pwd=dWV1eE8rYTloanlPUW8zSi9PNFRCZz09 Webinar ID: 980 6264 5039 Passcode: 071667 Or Telephone: (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 646 558 8656 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 77