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The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com John W. Casella is chairman and CEO of Casella. For decades, industrial companies such as DuPont and 3M have manufactured PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — that have been used in everyday products like clothing, furniture, packaging and carpeting. These chemicals, often called “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment, can accumulate in municipal wastewater treatment systems. Municipalities either release effluent contaminated with these chemicals into waterways, or the chemicals accumulate in the solids that remain, known as “biosolids.” The result? Passive receivers of biosolids — like landfills or composting facilities such as Hawk Ridge in Unity — are left to manage the consequences of PFAS they neither created nor caused. Casella, which acquired Hawk Ridge Compost Facility in 2000, has operated the facility in compliance with applicable regulations for more than two decades. Yet, following Maine’s 2022 ban on the land application of biosolids and compost derived from biosolids, and after extensive dialogue with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Casella has made the difficult decision to close the facility. Let’s be clear: Hawk Ridge did not create PFAS. Casella did not use PFAS in its composting activities, and those activities do not produce PFAS. In fact, the primary cause of PFAS concentrations at the facility stems from legacy industrial activities, particularly the land application of paper mill residuals that occurred on the property long before Hawk Ridge was constructed or Casella assumed ownership. Those historic practices differ significantly from today’s standards for biosolids land application and should not be confused. Still, as the property owner and permit holder, Casella will take full responsibility for the investigation and closure of the site. We are committed to working closely with DEP to ensure full compliance with closure requirements. But this issue extends beyond the closure of a single facility. It reflects a broader challenge to our society in which companies continue to produce PFAS, manufacturers keep using them in their products, and the responsibility for managing their environmental dispersion falls to waste managers, municipalities and taxpayers. Understanding the broader context of PFAS concentration levels and the potential risk of exposure is important when considering this issue. A recent report published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters showed that the concentrations of PFAS in commonly used items such as textiles, cosmetics and household chemicals are often thousands of times higher than the concentrations typically found in biosolids. Certain types of food packaging have also been found to have PFAS concentrations that exceed biosolids concentrations and are a much more likely source of human exposure. With that in mind, we must work collectively on upstream solutions and not just focus solely on downstream regulations. Policymakers at all levels should ban PFAS-containing products and producers of these chemicals and the manufacturers who use them must be held legally responsible for environmental cleanup. The Maine Legislature has taken a strong first step by passing a law prohibiting PFAS in products. That law has already banned the sale of carpets and fabric treatments containing intentionally added PFAS. Beginning in January 2026, it will extend to cleaning products, cookware, cosmetics, dental floss and several other categories. Casella is investing in solutions. At our landfill in Coventry, Vermont, we are utilizing foam fractionation technology to remove PFAS from landfill leachate before it is sent to wastewater treatment facilities. Early results are promising, with approximately 99% removal of four out of five regulated compounds, and 66% of the fifth. Plans are also underway for a similar treatment facility as part of any expansion of the state-owned, Casella-operated Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town. Yet, again, context is important here as the amount of PFAS in landfill leachate — liquid collected from landfill liner systems after rainwater, snowmelt and other moisture filters through waste — is minuscule compared with the concentrations found in carpets, fabrics and consumer products. People mainly have detectable concentrations of PFAS in their blood because of their daily use and exposure to these products, not because of wastewater or waste management facilities. Casella remains committed to delivering services and solutions that protect public health and the natural environment. And it is our sincere hope that the closure of Hawk Ridge and the conversations surrounding it will serve as a catalyst in how we address the PFAS problem, because this is not an issue that fits solely within how we manage waste. The public should neither expect us to shoulder this responsibility in isolation, nor assume the problem is resolved simply through regulating our industry. Only through collaborative efforts among policymakers, technology developers, public and private industry, and consumers can we develop effective solutions to mitigate the environmental impacts of PFAS.
