The interior of a biosolids gasification plant in Logan, Australia. Photo: Logan City
By Lee Burnett
Opponents of the Aries biosolids gasification plant celebrated a milestone last week with word that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection has agreed to hold a hearing before deciding whether to issue two needed licenses for the project.
The hearing will be run under courtroom-like rules and is designed to gather and vet expert testimony on Aries’ plans for ensuring air and water quality is protected, according to a letter from DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim. Members of the general public are still welcome to send written comments, which will be included in the public record.
Members of Sanford Clean Air and Water Coalition said the volume of emails and phone calls received by DEP was decisive.
“I would give credit to the general public,” said Eve Dumont-Wilson. “People have been emailing and calling on a daily basis…I definitely feel the people are being listened to. It feels good.”
She said the coalition hopes to persuade Earth Justice and Conservation Law Foundation to provide testimony. Aries officials say the plant would cook sludge from sewage treatment plants in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, converting it to biochar useful to the concrete industry. The process is advertised to reduce the volume of sludge accumulating in limited landfills by 90 percent while almost entirely destroying PFAS “forever” chemicals. Critics worry about the degree to which forever chemicals are destroyed, the plant’s location near the Mousam River, the potential for leaks and whether the site would be clean at the end of the plant’s life.
In the meantime, a separate opposition group received some pushback from City Manager Steve Buck on consequences of repealing a recently adopted Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. The Sanford City Council March 3 authorized the creation of a district so any new commercial development on 11 undeveloped lots in south Sanford would not automatically trigger a corresponding reduction in state aid – which is tied to the value of a community’s tax base – as long as the taxes generated from any of those properties is directed to specifically authorized purposes, rather than flowing directly into the city’s general fund.
Members of the group Stop the Sludge – Sanford, which has launched a petition drive to repeal the TIF, have asserted in various social media posts that Aries would benefit from the TIF, including that it “ensures the taxes paid by Aries plant stay tied to the plant’s needs rather than supporting the town’s broader day-to-day budget.”
Buck took exception to that characterization. In response to an inquiry from the Sanford Springvale News, he wrote in an email that no tax money would be returned to Aries through a credit enhancement agreement “and therefore has no bearing on how Aries is ultimately financed … Aries can develop with or without the TIF District, the two are not connected.”
Buck said the authorized uses of the taxes generated in the TIF district include reducing the tax burden of construction of two new fire stations, as well as infrastructure improvements in the industrial park area, such as pavement conditions, intersection improvements and water and sewer upgrades. “Sanford’s tax burden is connected to the TIF District and our abilities to foster an expanded tax base with quality jobs. That is the only reason the State allows us, the City, to establish and implement a TIF District,” he wrote.
Stop the Sludge – Sanford declined to comment further.
The post State Regulators to Take Closer Look at Aries Project appeared first on Sanford Springvale News.
