Report of March 27, 2021
Waste disposal nightmare gets worse; Island Explorer cancels the Quietside; Tremont to get second campground application; My 'Asian-American experience'
After decades of seeking safer waste disposal, towns to truck all waste to landfills in April
SOMESVILLE, March 27, 2021 - The latest indignity of the Fiberight plant fiasco in Hampden, which closed a year ago when the company ran out of cash, is that for most of April our garbage will be taken to a landfill just like how it was done 30 years ago.
That’s because the incinerator in Orrington - the temporary fix until the Hampden plant finds a new operator - will be off line to upgrade its 50-year-old electric grid and its turbines. All of the waste from MDI towns, and the other 111 towns in the MRC - about 6,000 tons a week - will be carted to the Old Town Juniper Ridge landfill, a site of “grave environmental injustice,” and a landfill in Norridgewock.
All those boxes from Amazon, the plastic bags from Walmart, your wilted produce, dairy three months past the sell-by date, leftovers gathering mold, cans and jars will go into indiscriminate piles to be hauled to the site an hour and 15 minutes away.
This compelling video, Landfill video, while mostly about the campaign against out-of-state waste, nonetheless illustrates the monumental disgrace which is the state’s largest landfill.
The unexpected addition of the MRC waste aggravates an already fraught situation in Old Town where neighbors, indigenous people and environmentalists have been battling against the trucking of waste from out of state.
John S. Banks, Natural Resources Director for the Penobscot Nation, wrote to legislators, “As a former member of Juniper Ridge Landfill Advisory Committee l have gained a fairly good understanding of Maine's waste management policies, regulations, and laws. And what l have come to learn about the way Maine governs waste has been nothing short of DlSASTROUS!!”
Even after the Orrington plant comes back online, 25 percent of the waste will still go to the landfill in Norridgewock. And all of the ash from incineration ends up in landfills.
MRC is now hoping to close the deal with the new operator of the Hampden plant by June 30, all but assuring that there will be no recycling when the summer onslaught of seasonal residents and their trash flood the system because it will take months to restart the plant.
The 65 persons on Thursday who dialed into a rare public session of the MRC, the consortium which “represents” the 115 towns in the waste disposal partnership , had many questions, including whether the new owner would burn sludge.
That prompted board member Sophie Wilson, tired of the questions, to urge the chair person to shut them off. Wilson is the town manager of Orono, home of UMaine’s main campus and one of the most progressive communities in the state.
“The questions that have to do with sludge, can we just skip because I feel we have already answered those?” Wilson said, in a remarkably condescending and dismissive tone given that the sludge issue came up when the CEO of Delta volunteered in public town hall meeting earlier this year that there is economic benefit in burning sludge from out of state.
Bill Lippincott of Hampden said he read in the Bangor Daily News that “Delta Thermo Energy specializes in a waste-to-energy process mixing wastewater sludge with household trash, to burn to produce electricity and that they were looking to employ this technology at the Fiberight plant in the future.
“This is particularly of concern because studies show that toxic chemicals that contaminate sewage sludge will not be destroyed by such a process, but just be moved around into the air and ash.”
It’s not surprising that MRC (Municipal Review Committee) is allergic to public oversight.
Judging from the questions there is great apprehension about what the MRC might do and lack of confidence in its management.
The $90 million white elephant in Hampden operated for only one year, and never achieved the state mandate of diverting 50 percent of its waste to recycling.
“If we looked closely at the Fiberight numbers we'd see that maybe 20 percent of what they are counting as recycled is actually used at the landfill” as reprocessed materials to provide a cover for the underlying waste, said Ed Spencer, an organizer with Don’t Waste Maine.
“It’s not recycling when the waste ends up in a landfill.”
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So we have come full circle.
Recognizing the hazards of landfills decades ago, state and local governments shifted to a hybrid model of recycling and incineration. Along the way many new methods - single sort for one - showed promise. Five years ago, a company called Fiberight and a charismatic CEO Craig Stuart Paul began dangling the shiny promise of an 80 percent recycling goal of all curbside waste.
Around the same time, great acrimony surfaced between the MRC and its main vendor, the 20-year-old incinerator in Orrington - the forlorned spouse who suddenly had to compete against a trophy suitor. Legal action ensued.
Stuart Paul was able to leverage his MRC relationship for loans to build a $90 plant which opened two years ago in Hampden. You may read the Bangor Daily News account on everything which went wrong here … //https://bangordailynews.com/2020/06/22/news/bangor/heres-what-went-wrong-at-the-shuttered-90m-trash-processing-plant-in-hampden/
Today, the nine-member board of the MRC which oversaw this free fall is still intact, as is the same “consultant” who pushed for Fiberight. The same team which gave us Fiberight is now doing the “due diligence” to sign up Delta Thermo Corp., the latest favorite.
At this stage no one really knows how long it will take to bring the plant on line if indeed a deal is closed June 30. The MRC board has given to conducting virtually all its business now in secret, having gone into “executive session” every time it has met for months. Even when it conducts “public” sessions, it allows questions only by chat, and without identifying the questioner. Director Michael Carroll has refused to answer QSJ questions, saying he’s too busy.
Jim Vallette, vice chairman of the SWH warrant committee, said, “It occurs to me that while the Fiberight facility remains in limbo, it would be great if MRC could suspend member towns from the requirement to provide certain amounts of waste, especially given the determination that our wastes are going to go to Juniper Ridge, a site of grave environmental injustice. Until it restarts Fiberight, MRC should let members pursue existing markets for recycled materials like separated cardboard (pulp mills), newsprint (cellulose insulation), compost, and glass, rather than force these wastes into Juniper Ridge.”
But he got a confusing response from the MRC, whose lawyer Jon Pottle said that MRC would not lift its legal hold on the towns. But chair person Karen Fussel said towns may act on their own “to enhance the recycling.” She did not respond to QSJ’s chat question to clarify the confusion.
Nonetheless, the MRC contracts only binds the municipalities. There is nothing prohibiting MDI towns to create a private non-profit for the sole purpose of recycling our waste. Many spirited citizens will be happy to return to our household sorting for the greater good, no doubt.
Free Island bus cuts Backside routes, evoking strong responses on FB
SOMESVILLE - Facebook lit up this morning with posts about the 2021 cutback of the free Island Explorer bus routes which will limit service to essentially just the park.
The non-profit summer service has been operating since 1979, and residents and businesses have come to rely on it for commuting and to transport tourists in and out of the area.
“So basically, if you stay in a rental, hotel, or campground on the backside, you cannot get to Bar Harbor or the more popular Acadia attractions without a car, unless you are a very hardy cyclist. Not good,” wrote Penelope Elias.
This week, Downeast Transportation, which operates the service, stated, “Because of the continued threat of Covid-19 and the need to maintain strict social distancing, Downeast Transportation has suspended service for 2021 on several community bus routes.
“We do not have enough buses or drivers to offer frequent service on all routes. We cannot ask passengers who are turned away to wait 30 or 60 minutes for their next bus, especially when there is a good chance that the next bus will also be full.” Here is its updated route map:
For service in 2021, see Routes 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8.
Bar Harbor Town Council member Erin Cough wrote:
“The Towns of MDI cannot direct the routes or operations of the Explorer. Any recommendations made by the municipalities or Chambers are up to Downeast Transportation to make a final decision.
“There is a constant need for drivers, a limited number of buses, and now with Covid restrictions, I personally think they are doing what they can with what they have under the guidelines they have to work. I mean at least this year they are running!”
Two residents had this exchange:
“It was definitely disappointing to see that it will only cater to the park. My employees relied on the bus to get to and from work and also Kayla used it for work and pleasure to be able to get around the island safely as a teenager.”
“Exactly, same with Emily. I totally trusted the service to get Em around safely and now sadly, that won’t be available. Just catering to the park is wrong. What about the year round residents that rely on the transportation in the Summer? Like you said, employees and kids....very sad!”
Second Tremont campground proposal draws fire from Planning Board
TREMONT, March 27, 2021 - The town is about to get its second campground application although at a much smaller scale.
The Pointy Head campground at 158 Harbor Drive already possesses a long record of non-compliance issues with the town starting in 2019 when it erected cabins without a permit and was served a notice of violation.
Since then there have been many discussions - often contentious ones - between the applicant and the Planning Board. Last year the applicant accused one member of a conflict of interest. Its application for a permit to run the campground was unanimously rejected by the board last September. It came back March 9 to seek a “pre-application” conference and the conversation was fraught with tension.
Chairman Mark Good repeatedly told Jeff Crafts, the engineer hired by owner Madeline “Bunny” Brogdon, that the purpose of the conference was not to give opinions on unspecified plans, such a buffering fence without seeing details of the proposal.
The 19-acre property sits on several different zones. It got its name from a sliver of waterfront land across Harbor Drive which residents call Pointy Head because it juts out into the harbor. That piece is in a waterfront zone. The application is seeking permission to operate a campground with 15 sites. Neighbors complained she took in guests without a permit in 2019.
Meanwhile, opposition against the much bigger Acadia Wilderness Lodge campground is gaining steam, as more than 1,000 persons have signed a petition against the proposed 152-site campground across the Hillcrest Cemetery on Tremont Road.
The Planning Board conducted a largely procedural meeting March 23 when questions were raised about propane canister disposal and whether non-campers may use the store, pool and trails.
Taxpayers have already started to foot the bill for this enterprise as the Planning Board has engaged outside counsel at a rate of $250 an hour in anticipation of legal tussle no matter which way the application goes.
The Planning Board scheduled a site visit at 5 p.m. on April 13. followed by its regular meeting at 6:30. A public hearing on the application is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on April 27. The Planning Board is seeking engineering peer review on traffic and stormwater management. The applicant has expressed willingness to extend the public hearing if that peer review opinion is not provided to the Town by April 14.
An Asian-American Pacific Islander in Maine; now that’s from far away ..
SOMESVILLE - The New York Times published My friend Gish Jen’s op-ed piece about her mother which got me thinking about my own “Asian-American” experience. CLICK HERE TO READ
Taiwan in 1960 was not a place for the timid if you’re an adopted son of an American G.I. in a mostly white missionary school which catered to the children of military personnel stationed on the island.
My single mother had just married Ben Millstein, who was then a master sergeant for the Military Assistant Advisory Group (MAAG), a kind of low-rent CIA operation but without the cloak and dagger. The military was gearing up for a significant conflict in Asia (Vietnam) so the bigotry was high-pitched.
None of my mother’s three Chinese children spoke English. Taipei American School (TAS) rejected us. Oy! What to do?
My resourceful mother found an English-speaking Catholic missionary school eager to indoctrinate the pagans. The fact we had a Jewish name was a bonus. Dominican School harvested many students from TAS because of its reputation for discipline and good old-fashioned rote academics.
The Filipino Dominican nuns were strict constructionists. They understood their special market niche and executed it with aplomb.
Until they met me, a mischievous, gregarious child with ADD (they didn’t call it that) who had a problem with authority (journalism!!!).
I went from Chinese one day to American the next. Nothing in my life compares with how a 9-year-old had to adapt to that. To be clear, in 1960 being Chinese was being Chinese and being American was being American. There was no euphemistic opacity.
First day in school, Billy Henry made his presence known by peeling back his eyes to make the slanted-eye mockery common at the time. I was more confused than insulted. I had never met an American child of my age. I didn’t understand why anyone would make fun of my eyes. This was abetted by other kids who laughed.
Billy Henry went on to mock the way I ate. I slurped my noodle soup with the bowl flush to my mouth like the way 1.5 billion people in Asia eat their ramen. Billy Henry thought that was emblematic of a lesser race. He got the rest of the class to taunt me. The teasing escalated. I was 9 and the entire class was mocking me for the way I ate.
I looked at Billy Henry. He was in his realm, having galvanized the entire class to bully the new Chinese kid.
So I reached back with my fist, and cold-cocked Billy Henry. The capillary explosion from his nose was profound. The entire school yard seemed to fill with Billy Henry’s blood.
Billy Henry bawled like baby. “He hit me. He hit me.” The rest of the class jumped in. “He hit Billy. He hit Billy.”
Sister Concepcion, the strict constructionist, stepped in. “What did you do?”
“I spanked Billy,” I said confusing my words as a 9-year-old just learning the language.
Sister Concepcion, ever sensitive to the political heirarchy of her students, didn’t take long to determine that the adopted child of a master sergeant had just struck the son of Colonel Henry, commander of MAAG.
She arrayed all the students in the school yard and they took turn to “spank” me. That was my first experience of American justice - or more precisely Filipino justice.
Billy Henry never mocked me again though. He even tried to be my friend.
My brother and I managed to survive secondary school with our fists. It got easier as the years passed.
I’m too old now to resort to pugilistic antics. Besides, I’ve settled nicely in a truly foreign milieu, Mount Desert Island, where the only Chinese I see are Mainland tourists who always seem to capsize their canoes on Long Pond.
I am discriminated more for “being away” than for my ethnicity, and for the first time in my life, I am only one of a bigger group of folks with a shared grievance.