Gee, Think.

We saw this cogeneration facility on the side of the New Jersey turnpike
on our way back from Ikea. It streches on for a long time, and is quite
a monstrosity to behold. It generates some type of fuel as well as
electricity.
I’m sure this plant is necessary. I’m sure that it provides an
essential part of the area’s infrastructure, but boy is it ugly.
Part of living in New Jersey is confronting the costs and strains that
our population puts on the environment. It’s not Jersey’s fault. In
fact they have pretty stringent rules and environment regulations.
These industrial sites are the necessary evil of sustaining our
incredibly dense and flourishing population. I know that we can improve
our environmental impact, but I accpet that we pay these costs for a
better standard or living. My hope is that we will someday soon
discover ways to drastically reduce the pullants and waste we produce.
Until then, there are the realities of our consumption to face.

Lo-Landfill
Originally uploaded by redpatterndress.

So I’m making some progress with my self-assigned research project. On my last night in Maine I felt compelled to do a little internet research on the landfill situation in Maine*. I found several infrormational sites which I listed in my delicious page at http://del.icio.us/garrettwilkin under the tag “dumpproject”.

I found the Maine government’s website through googling, and contacted some people at the “Maine State Planning Office” about the number, kind, and location of landfills in Maine. I was pointed to the ‘Waste Generation and Disposal Capacity’ report which is located on the web at http://www.state.me.us/spo/recycle/docs/2003gencapreport.pdf. Very cool. I’m glad that the information is out there to help me get started. The stinking landfill in question falls under section 4 “Commercial Landfills”:

“Pine Tree Landfill, located in Hampden, owned by Casella Waste Services, Inc.

The total disposal capacity currently licensed at these two commercial landfills is approximately 5,694,898 cubic yards. The majority of this capacity is at the Crossroads Landfill, which an estimated 4,096,736 cubic yards of capacity remaining at the end of 2003. The Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden has less than three years remaining capacity, at current fill rates. The Crossroads Landfill has approximately 8 to 10 years of disposal capacity remaining, at current fill rates.”

So this clears things up. Apparently Costello Demolition is a company that does some landfill capping, but so far I have not determined which landfills they have indeed capped. So for now the focus is on Casella Waste Services, Inc. They are conviently located at www.casella.com. I will be checking out their site in detail for sure.

At a first glance, they have had a profitable last quarter, but I just missed their company conference call by two weeks. Oh well. from their website:

“For the quarter ended October 31, 2005, the company reported revenues of $136.8 million, up $10.4 million, or 8.2 percent over the same quarter last year.”

So why does a company who is increasing profits produce a landfill that fills a beautiful state with a stench? Does the landfill stink because of their poor design? I will find the answers to these questions.

*Apparently landfill is the more widely used and official term. I started searching for dump, and that didn’t help too much.

Non-Sequential
Originally uploaded by ocellnuri.

Maine is my home state. It’s not where I was born, but it’s where I grew up. I’ve got a romantic vision of it in my mind’s eye. The sun shining off the tall grass in the fields I ran through during cross country practice. The snow covered trails I hiked through between home and school each winter day. It’s a place that’s natural. Nature resides in Maine. Industry is sleepy. The pace is slower, and more measured. It’s my idealistic childhood comfort fantasy.

This is way the current events disturb me.

I just drove home to be with my family for the Christmas season. I was almost in Bangor, headed north on interstate 95 when I smelt it. The dump. I smelt it last summer, and the summer before. The stench filled my nostrils for the first time two summers ago. I was appalled. It was like realizing that your Dad is not invincible. Like watching your team lose a championship game. I felt like something beautiful had died.

I never imagined that I would drive through a part of the state that stunk of trash. I thought the only offender was the Old Town mill, which puts out a strange sulfur smell. That mill was the only unnatural odor I knew of. Now there were two, the second being the stench of trash wafting in the air, strong enough to be smelt at 70 mph.

What’s going on? Why does Maine smell? Who is responsible for this? I don’t yet know the answers to those questions, but I hope to find out soon. Someone is responsible for piling the trash so high that it stinks in the wind. Someone is to blame for the excessive pile of waste. My gut feeling is that this site has been mismanaged by the irresponsible in exchange for money. I feel like someone must have had their pockets lined to allow this to happen. What’s worse is that another dump is being built in Old Town.

I think the people of Maine are being taken for a ride by their leadership. Where are the protectors of the state? Who is selling out our Natural resources? Who is responsible for destroying my childhood paradise? I think these people have been bribed by a negligent company. What other explanation is there? I know that it is possible to build dumps that do not stink up the surrounding area. This must take lots of money, and drastically reduce the profit on the dump operation. There must be a huge cost and effort involved in making a “eco-friendly” dump, but the cost is dollars is nothing compared to the cost to the environment when a dump goes bad. The environmental costs could be as serious as a contaminated water supply. What if this chemical run-off seeps into our drinking water?

I haven’t done the investigating to validate any of these feelings. I have no facts to back me up, I’m sure you could get them by talking to the people of Bangor and Old Town. I don’t know what I’m about to do, but I hope to affect a change here. This is serious. I can’t sit in inaction while my childhood paradise is pillaged.