A bill authorizing the state to acquire an East Millinocket landfill received final approval Thursday, but not before some lawmakers compared the controversial deal aimed at saving two shuttered paper mills to “corporate blackmail.”A lopsided, 34-1 vote in the Senate Wednesday morning belied the consternation some lawmakers felt as state officials — in their quest to salvage two Katahdin Paper mills and hundreds of jobs — prepare to potentially take over an aging landfill tied to the mills.The Dolby Landfill has, for decades, received paper-related sludge, pulp and other waste from the two paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket. Nearly full, the landfill is now regarded as a liability and an obstacle to finding a new buyer for two mills that a few years ago employed roughly 600 people.To me, the most troubling is :
Another issue raised Thursday was the level of contamination at the landfill. In a letter to the Attorney General’s Office, the Conservation Law Foundation pointed out that the landfill has struggled to receive a permit renewal from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection“due to continuing problems with leachate discharges and landfill stability issues.”A few months ago I wrote to the Maine Center for Disease Control, Cancer Registry Dept., asking for a breakdown of the incidents of the different cancers broken down by town in Penobscot County. The County figures are published online so you would think it wouldn't be too difficult to furnish the breakdown but to date I have received no information.
I also wrote to Erin Brockovich and have heard nothing yet. Perhaps there are so many similar situations across the country that no one has time?
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