BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 2, 2023
Hundreds of tons of wastewater sludge containing bacteria, chemicals and human excrement is building up each day at facilities across Maine that have no good way to dispose of it, after the company running the state-owned landfill abruptly said it couldn’t accept any more of the material. Casella Waste Systems told more than 30 wastewater treatment plants last week that it would no longer put their sludge, which contains the more solid components of wastewater, into Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town, shocking some of their operators who are scrambling to find a solution. “If this goes unsolved, this will become a human health and environmental crisis,” said Amanda Smith, the water quality management director for the Bangor Wastewater Treatment Plant.