Three of 16 board members decide to end landfill project

Absenteeism continued to derail the Marion Transfer Station's (MTS) efforts to conduct business at the board's meeting on January 13 when the monthly session was again adjourned for lack of a quorum. Two scheduled meetings in December failed to draw the required minimum five directors. Five of the 16 members did attend a third board meeting on December 23 and voted 3-2 to terminate a five-year-old project in which the quasi-municipal corporation had already invested almost a half-million dollars.

The project involved the proposed purchase of a 4,700-acre site in Township 14, of which 18 acres would be developed as a construction and demolition debris (CDD) landfill. MTS directors have said the present landfill in Marion is near capacity and should be closed. The new site has already received rezoning approval from the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC); the next step in the approval process would have been an application to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to sanction the plan.

According to MTS Manager Milan Jamieson, the exact amount already expended on the project C $476,876.85 C includes legal and engineering costs, water level testing and an escrow account set up in the name of the property owner, H.C. Haynes Company, a logging operator. MTS has made annual payments to the account to renew its lease option. According to Jamieson, the funds are not recoverable if the option is terminated by MTS, the potential buyer.

When the $8,500 payment due for 2009 came up for consideration at the December 23 MTS meeting, Bob Chase, representing East Machias, introduced a motion "not to renew the option on the H.C. Haynes lot." Stuart Shotwell, representing Cooper, and John Pope, representing Whiting, supported the motion, with Dick Adams, representing Perry, and Andy Mills, representing Dennysville, opposed. A second motion by Chase, "to suspend all operations on the proposed demo site process," was approved 4-1. Thus, with the minimum number of directors in attendance to constitute a quorum, only three communities out of the 16 members made the decision to terminate the project.

When the MTS board convened on January 13, that meeting was aborted when only three voting members appeared: Adams, Shotwell and Johnny Leighton representing Pembroke. Jamieson and Dean Bradshaw of Dennysville were also present. Jamieson is employed as manager of the facility and is not a board member; Bradshaw does not vote on issues related to the proposed new landfill, as he has been compensated for professional engineering services for the project.

Nancy Oden of Jonesport, an environmental activist and longtime opponent of a CDD landfill in Township 14, hailed the MTS vote. In a press release issued January 8 on behalf of the Clean Water Coalition, of which she is coordinator, Oden credited "citizen resistance to a bad idea" for the decision. She said, "The group that was touting it began to question why it was taking so long, and why they had already spent over $200,000 [sic] of what should have been Washington County taxpayers' money and still there was no dump."

Oden has maintained that CDD is "from away trash" that is trucked to Washington County landfills with the support of a "small group who saw that money could be made by taking garbage from other regions." In fact, Oden claims, "To lower citizens' high garbage fees, we need to stop throwing away good things, recycle all possible whether or not the market is good, and set up industries to make new from old. Especially we need to compost our food waste, which can reduce garbage by as much as 40 to 60 percent."

While the MTS board decision to terminate the Township 14 project was unequivocal, several members said the issue could be reopened and possibly reversed at a future meeting. Jamieson said he informed the property owner of the termination, who replied that no irreversible action would be taken "for several months."

The participating communities in the MTS landfill are Robbinston, Perry, Eastport, Pembroke, Charlotte, Meddybemps, Cooper, Wesley, Northfield, Lubec, Dennysville, Whiting, Cutler, Machiasport, East Machias, and Washington County Unorganized Territory.