BUCKSPORT, Maine — For a year, a citizen's group in Bucksport has been calling on town leaders to reject a proposal to repurpose a local landfill into a waste management site.
But earlier this month, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection ordered the Bucksport mill site to be cleaned up and closed for good.
The DEP issued a letter on Aug. 4 to AIM Recycling, the parent company that operated the landfill in Bucksport, to clear the landfill and debris construction in 2026.
Don White led the citizens' activism group for the town and worked for a year to get town officials to act and investigate environmental concerns at the site of the town's former paper mill. It came after AIM submitted a proposal to use the area as a waste management site.
The DEP letter alleges years of neglect, environmental violations at the site, and a breach of contract with the town.
“It was a good moment for the citizens of Bucksport," White expressed. He said he believes AIM's proposal helped draw attention to issues there.
“We've had a couple of forums where we brought in people from away, from Juniper Ridge who suffered long and hard with the trash dump situation up there,” White expressed.
Bucksport town Manager Susan Lessard says she had a duty to weigh in on AIM’s proposal for the site.
“The town can’t make emotional decisions, but fact-based decisions,” Lessard said.
“I’m very pleased that this process has gotten us to a place where we have a considerable amount of information, we have an ordinance in place for whatever eventuality might come forward. We now have the State Department of Environmental Protection concurring, it’s time for this to close,” Lessard explained.
“The DEP was wonderful in providing everything that we asked for,” Lessard said.
Future-wise for the site, Lessard says, the mere existence of the 400,000 cubic yards of permitted space as the landfill with an additional 700,000 yards for a vertical expansion on top was cause for concern.
“If that just sits there, even if nobody is doing anything with it as permitted space, it’s never final. There’s always this possibility that in some desperate day, the state could need the space or that there could be a generator at the site, that something that could happen to cause this discussion to happen again,” Lessard expressed.
Since it’s adjacent to the town’s downtown and the waterfront, having finality is important to the community and its long-term planning.
“But if it’s legally capped and closed, deeded closed, it's the right answer. That puts the bow on it. It’s done.” Lessard concluded.
The collection of relevant information from stakeholders, including the town and citizens working with council members and soliciting investigative reports from the DEP, were all vital in getting to this conclusive decision.
Bucksport Mill must submit a closure plan of the landfill including a schedule for completing the work in January 2024, and the landfill closed for good in the year 2026.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to AIM Recycling, which declined to comment on the closure plan.