A superior court judge has ruled in favor of the Penobscot Nation in an appeal over the expansion of the Juniper Ridge Landfill. The court ordered the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to redo a study that determined there was a public benefit associated with expansion.
Justice Bruce Mallonee found that the DEP did not complete fact finding critical to its public benefit determination for the expansion of Juniper Ridge, the state-owned landfill in Old Town.
He's now ordered the department to consider the cumulative environmental burdens placed on the Penobscot Nation and on the tribe's intimate relationship with the Penobscot River. By not considering those factors originally, the DEP failed to properly apply environmental justice standards required under Maine law.
The Penobscot Nation and Conservation Law Foundation had appealed the DEP's public benefit finding.
"This means the environmental justice criterion is real and it's meaningful, and it's not just a box to be checked, and that these communities matter," said Alexandra St. Pierre, with the Conservation Law Foundation. "It matters how they're affected by these state decisions, and the court affirmed that."
In a statement, Penobscot Nation Tribal Chief Kirk Francis said the ruling affirms that the burdens on the tribe's health, lands and Penobscot River must be taken seriously.
A spokesperson for the DEP said in a statement the department is reviewing the decision and weighing its options moving forward.
A spokesperson for Casella, which operates the landfill, said the company is in the process of reviewing the decision.
The ruling instructs DEP to issue a revised public benefit determination within 75 days.
