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A truck passes through the entrance in Alton to Juniper Ridge Landfill on May 28, 2026. Photo by Erin Rhoda.

Maine sewage sludge crisis is ‘still under a clock’ even if landfill expands

The proposed expansion of the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town and Alton comes as Maine grapples with where to put the PFAS-contaminated sludge that piles up each day at municipal wastewater treatment plants. 

The landfill’s application for an expansion license is being processed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which recently determined for a second time that the expansion would have a public benefit. That determination remains under an ongoing appeal brought by the Penobscot Nation and the Conservation Law Foundation who argue that air and water pollution from the landfill is an environmental injustice to the surrounding communities and to the Penobscot River, which is central to the Penobscot Nation’s way of life.

Juniper Ridge currently handles about half of the state’s total landfilled waste and about 90 percent of the state’s sewage sludge, the biosolids strained out of wastewater. Three years ago, when the facility suddenly stopped accepting sludge for several months — saying the landfill’s structural integrity was at risk — Maine got a preview of a potential crisis.

The landfill is once again accepting sewage sludge but is set to reach capacity for all types of waste in 2028. If approved, the proposed 61-acre expansion would extend the facility’s capacity for approximately another decade.

Just before starting at The Maine Monitor, I watched the eye-opening, stressful and surprisingly funny documentary “Unless Something Goes Terribly Wrong” at the DC Environmental Film Festival in April.

The filmmakers Kaitlyn Schwalje and Alex Wolf Lewis followed the wastewater treatment plant operators at the Portland Water District as they confronted Maine’s sewage sludge crisis in 2023, and it’s a good introduction to the issue from a wastewater perspective. If you’d like to see it, the Portland Museum of Art will hold a free screening on June 13 followed by a panel discussion.

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