Municipal Solid Waste: incinerators, landfills, out-of-state waste for profit, PERC, MRC (Bangor: real estate, power lines)

[Submariner]

As a new Maine resident, I have recently been going through an interesting process of learning how Maine infrastructure, politics, and businesses work.

We were approached a few months ago, by a realtor wanting to buy some of our land. On behalf of an undisclosed buyer. The realtor wanted us to sign a non-disclosure contract; he said that the buyer wanted to use a previously existing easement that runs down the center of the parcel. He assured us that there would never be any traffic on that easement, it would only be used for power lines. The buyer just did not want to have to deal with an easement on someone else' land. We flat turned him down, and told him to go away.

Later it turned out that it is one of two sites being considered by MRC, for a Municipal-Waste-Incinerator and Landfill.

Then it turned out that MRC is projecting 90 to 100 full-loaded trucks every day going into the site [traversing across our land].

Our township has had three meetings to discuss this project. [EVERYONE is seriously upset]

2 weeks ago 30 of our township residents crashed a MRC board meeting in Orono, along with a TV news crew.

Last night MRC held a public hearing in Alton to discuss it with area residents.

Some residents only learned of the meeting that morning, as neighbors told them. Whatever method MRC may have used to notify area residents that a public hearing was going to happen, was rather hit or miss.

We had 109 residents in attendance, a County Commissioner, 2 State Reps, and 2 Penobscot Tribe Council members.

Many questions were asked, some questions received 'responses'. No question got answered. The responses were in the form of shrugs, guesses, and avoidance tactics. [It reminded me of the musical 'Chicago' where the defense lawyer 'Billy Flynn' does a song about how well he can avoid all questions]

This story has appeared briefly on both Channel 2 WLBZ / NBC and Channel 5 WABI / CBS.

Also there have been two discussions on 620AM WVOM.

http://www.wzonthepulse.com/podcast/May19.mp3
[ In the audio feed, slide over to minute 0:41 and continue through to 1:03]

and

http://www.wzonthepulse.com/podcast/...N%20052214.mp3



So far it has been a real learning experience for me.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

It would be interesting to know who the lying Realtor is or if he really is a Realtor.

[Maineac]

The companies that are doing easement acquisition for pipelines, powerlines, highway gashes from Canada to Canada and so forth MAY be realtors, but, generally speaking, all are brokers. They usually are not with your typical brokerage agencies like ERA you-know-who. Often, it's an engineering firm, a "large construction firm from a town that begins with 'P'" or an independent specialty firm as with CMP. For example, a national engineering firm out of Orono was doing this for powerline acquisitions. They use licensed brokers simply to not get in a situation where they run afoul of State statutes on real estate transactions, and before they start talking they hand out the State mandated disclosure forms.

[ribbets]

I took the time to research some of this, and the person in charge of the anaylsis Karen Knuuti .has posted considerable documentation at the State DEP website www.maine.gov/dep/waste/mrc/index.html
some of the responces are well written and with a great deal of emotion (public comment) and some, are the usual miss-direction generation of what the MRC members claim will reduce the tipping fees for the next 30 years of tipping.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

It would be interesting to know who the lying Realtor is or if he really is a Realtor.

I just figured that he was cut from the same sail-cloth as the rest of the MRC board members.

Peter Libhart, of Penobscot Real Estate co; with a Bangor address. I was hoping he would have been present at the hearing, I would have loved to go on record telling folks of his professional realtor ethics.

To be fully honest though, I sniffed that something was evil, the minute he told us about the non-disclosure contract. In my mind, I associate non-disclosure contracts with oil-frakking, monsanto, and DOW. As examples of corporations destroying people's lives and being able to cover-up their path of destruction.

The minute he said 'non-disclosure contract' we refused to give him the time-of-day after that. But he kept coming here trying to entice us.

[Maineac]

Well, it seems as though he is on Cedar St. in Bangor, has one listing in Augusta and one listing in Westbrook. No other information available on the internet. He is the son of (deceased) attorney Wayne Libhart. Curious. Doesn't seem to be in the "typical" real estate business.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by ribbets

I took the time to research some of this, and the person in charge of the anaylsis Karen Knuuti .has posted considerable documentation at the State DEP website www.maine.gov/dep/waste/mrc/index.html
some of the responces are well written and with a great deal of emotion (public comment) and some, are the usual miss-direction generation of what the MRC members claim will reduce the tipping fees for the next 30 years of tipping.

Greg Lauder of the MRC opening the hearing with a statement about how "they need to discover a new method or technology to dispose of MSW". He later went on that "they can not name this new technology, as it has not been invented yet". ... "This site might not be an incinerator, you can't tell at this point" ... "After the permits have been issued, then who knows what they might build" ... "tax increases have worked very well in the past 25 years, and tipping fees can always be increased to pay for whatever they decide to build".

The CES civil engineer made a series of statements that pretty much flew against all known physics. but in his later statements was ... "the government is always ready with more tax dollars to pay for any damage from leaking landfills".



I took a lot of notes, and we had 3 video cameras going

[Submariner]

Anyone wanting to possibly incinerate trash adjacent to our land, and to drive 90 to 100 trucks per day across our land, is going to have a wee bit of a contest coming.

[flyonpa]

Q: I don't understand how there would be 90/100 Trucks a day going across your land, if your granted them a power line easement?

When you have your lawyer write/review the easement contract / agreement you put in Only Powerlines of up to X voltage may be installed. Access to maintain the lines is restricted to only PowerLine Repair crews.

You can even put in the access road for maintenance must be gated and gate must be locked at all times execpt for the time the Line Maintenance crew is moving thru the gate.

[Maineac]

I think the point was that the initial approach and presentation was misleading, implying only power lines.