ORRINGTON, Maine — The trash fire at the former PERC facility in Orrington, now Eagle Point Energy Center, that began Tuesday will take several more days to extinguish, according to the town’s fire chief.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just lifted its Air Quality Advisory related to the smoke from that fire.
The DEP says particle pollution in that smoke is now moderate, meaning air quality is now acceptable.
According to the DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nothing hazardous was found at the scene of the fire or surrounding areas.
For people who live near the facility, breathing in the smoke can still cause health problems.
"With the air quality alerts that have been out and the smells that have been around it's definitely something that's been concerning and on my mind," Cameron Provost, who works in Orrington, said.
Orrington firefighters are still fighting the fire from the outside and are working on a plan to safely extinguish the trash pile on the inside of the building.
Orrington Fire Chief Scott Stewart estimated that they have put 1.5 million gallons of water on the fire already.
"No matter how much water we put on, it runs off the pile and out the door, versus get to the fire itself and extinguish it," Stewart said. "So, we have to mechanically use equipment to get there to open the pile up."
The renewable waste facility, formerly known as PERC, was sold to Eagle Point Energy Center earlier this year.
Eagle Point representative Evan Coleman said 10,000 tons of trash was left by the former owners. Eagle Point is now about halfway done clearing that waste.
"Unfortunately, this fire broke out during those efforts and all we can do is try to accelerate those plans to get the facility cleaned up," Coleman said.
Eagle Point was already planning to demolish and rebuild the portion of the building that’s burning, so the fire is not slowing down the facility’s plans to reopen in 2025.
"This does not change our start of construction this year, to be able to refurbish the facility and get it to be a safe facility that provides a great service for the region," Coleman said.
The EPA has now left the scene after completing its testing. The DEP is still monitoring the air quality in areas affected by the fire.
The organizations have not yet released water quality test results of the Penobscot River.
Fire Chief Stewart said they still don’t know what started the fire, and likely will never know because any clues have burned.
He expects to have a better idea of the timeline for cleanup early next week.
