Operators of the Juniper Ridge Landfill said they are moving ahead with plans to treat landfill leachate for PFAS, but some advocates said that doesn't justify an expansion of the facility.
Jeff Ward, with Casella Waste Systems, which operates the state-owned landfill in Old Town, said it is assessing options to use foam fractionation to filter the leachate. The company uses the technology at a facility in Vermont and is working to scale up the process for Juniper Ridge.
Ward said Casella plans to file permits for the treatment system next year, and have it operational in 2027.
"We're getting to that point where we're confident in the technology, we understand it after utilizing it in Vermont and we're at a point now where we're ready to scale it into Maine," he said.
The state is requiring some sort of treatment system as part of a plan to expand the landfill.
Nora Bosworth with the Conservation Law Foundation said the leachate should be treated, but no system will do enough to address the broader pollution concerns for the Penobscot River and the surrounding communities.
"There's no world in which this expansion could be said to be consistent with environmental justice, because there's no world in which any treatment system, regardless of the technology, could completely do away with the added toxics that are going to go into the river and into the air and into the soil and into the bodies living near Juniper Ridge," she said.
Weld said the company has never had compliance issues for operations at the landfill, and Juniper Ridge is a vital resource in Maine's waste management system.
