Casella Waste Systems confirmed that it's shipping more sludge from its large landfill north of Bangor across the border and into this province.

"We have recently entered into a new contract with a disposal outlet in New Brunswick," Jeff Weld, the director of communications for Casella, told Radio-Canada in an email.

The New Brunswick government appeared unaware of the increased shipments when contacted for comment.

Environment Department spokesperson Anne Mooers said Fredericton-based Envirem Organics is the only company in the province licensed to import biosolids and has been doing so "for a number of years."

She said the company imported 13,400 tonnes from Maine and Nova Scotia in 2022. "This isn't new," Mooers said in an initial response.

The N.B. government said it has had 'strict regulatory requirements for importing biosolids for many years.' (Francois Genest/Radio-Canada)

But Casella is moving far more than that amount, according to a company letter.

It's shipping 3,600 tonnes of Maine sludge — about 130 truckloads, according to one Maine media report — to New Brunswick each month.

In a second response, Mooers said Envirem has a "cap" of 100,000 tonnes annually so it "can handle" the additional shipments from Maine.

"The government of New Brunswick takes its role to protect the environment extremely seriously," she said.

"We have had strict regulatory requirements for importing biosolids for many years. New Brunswick legislation requires all importation of waste products to be approved by the province."

'Short term' increase, company says

Envirem CEO Bob Kiely said in a text message that the company has had contracts with Casella for years and "the increase in volume … is expected to be short term."

He said the company has developed more stringent standards for what it accepts "than any other regulatory jurisdiction." 

Casella is facing a serious capacity crunch as a result of two new state laws.

A law which took effect Feb. 8 bans the use of the sludge for agricultural production in Maine. 

It's a response to concerns the sludge contains so-called "forever chemicals" known as PFAS that are considered a risk to human health.

Biosolids, or sludge, contain chemicals known as PFAS that are considered a risk to human health. Exposure to certain levels have been linked to some cancers and decreased fertility, according to a U.S. report. (Francois Genest/Radio-Canada)

Another problem is a recent state ban on importing large bulky waste that Casella could mix with the sludge to bury it. 

The two bans leave Casella with too much sludge to handle at its landfill site in Old Town, north of Bangor. The site receives sludge from about three dozen local sewer plants.

Casella was shipping sludge to Québec for agricultural use but after Radio-Canada reported on those shipments last December that province imposed a moratorium, based on the same concerns about PFAS.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says exposure to certain levels of PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been linked by peer-reviewed studies to some cancers, decreased fertility, low birth weights and other effects. 

PFAS are chemicals used to make coatings that resist heat, oil and water and can be found in adhesives, packaging and non-stick cooking surfaces among other places. They do not break down and can accumulate.

Weld said in his email that the Québec moratorium "does not have anything to do with" the shipments to New Brunswick.

"All operations are in full compliance with regulations," he said.

Kiely said he expects Casella to find other sources of large bulky waste to mix with the sludge, which will allow it to be buried and reduce the surplus at the landfill, returning export levels to normal.

Concern from N.B. agricultural group

Joel Lamarche, president of the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick, said he was concerned about the shipments and would discuss them with the organization's board.

In the meantime, he is warning farmers in the province to not accept any biosolid-based fertilizers that might be from Maine.

"What I would tell them is to refuse it. It's better to refuse it and have no problems than accept it and risk having a major problem," he said.

"If you don't know what's in it, don't use it."

Kiely said Envirem makes compost and its product isn't used on agricultural land. He said he's not aware of any sludge applied to farm crops in the province by Envirem or anyone else.

Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton said the province needs to act on the Maine shipments. (CBC News file photo)

He also said the company is "very selective" about what it receives and recently added even more stringent standards to address "new and emergent concerns."

That includes allowing only "very low" levels of PFAS, he said.

Green Party MLA Megan Mitton says the province needs to act on the Maine shipments.

"They're sending them to New Brunswick because they don't want to deal with the consequences of those products," she said. "I don't want New Brunswick to have to deal with those consequences either."

Sabaa Khan, the David Suzuki Foundation's director-general for Québec and Atlantic Canada, says New Brunswick needs stricter rules on PFAS.

"Under New Brunswick's guidelines, PFAS levels in biosolids are not integrated into the quality criteria. Québec is now looking at that situation and New Brunswick has to take the same action." 

Sabaa Khan is a environmental lawyer with the David Suzuki Foundation says New Brunswick needs stricter rules on PFAS. (Francois Genest/Radio-Canada)

New Brunswick's environmental guidelines for the use of industrial byproducts in agricultural soil bans the use of "materials derived from municipal biosolids, which have high levels of pathogens," but does not mention PFAS.

Mooer's response from the environment department Tuesday did not address PFAS either.

In a Feb. 24 letter to a municipal sanitary authority in Maine, obtained by Radio-Canada and CBC News, Casella said the new state legislation had "greatly diminished" the volume of biosolids that its landfill could handle.

That would require 4,000 U.S. tons —the equivalent of 3,600 metric tonnes — to be sent "out of Maine," leading to higher fees to municipal sewage operations, the letter said.

Khan says in Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulates the use of biosolids on agricultural land growing food for human consumption, but its criteria do not cover PFAS. 

Provinces have the jurisdiction to regulate biosolids through environmental guidelines, she adds.

"It's incumbent on every province to ensure its biosolid regulations are up to date."

-Patrick Ellis, Casella's director of organic solutions

The province's guidelines for biosolids do not include PFAS in their criteria.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says exposure to certain levels of PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been linked by peer-reviewed studies to some cancers, decreased fertility, low birth weights and other effects. 

PFAS are chemicals used to make coatings that resist heat, oil and water and can be found in adhesives, packaging and non-stick cooking surfaces among other places. They do not break down and can accumulate.

Casella’s director of organic solutions addressed a committee at the Maine State Legislature this week. (CBC)

Ellis said he did not believe municipal biosolids were the source of the PFAS that triggered such alarm in Maine.

Chemical levels in the soil were measured in parts per million, while the amounts in municipal biosolids handled by Casella were at the low end of parts per billion.

"The math doesn't work to create PFAS levels in the soil that are that high," he said.

Not a long-term solution

Ellis told the committee that Casella urged Envirem to notify New Brunswick provincial regulators "to let them know what was coming and so far things are going pretty well."

But he said the shipments are not a long-term solution because New Brunswick could still impose a moratorium on biosolid imports for agriculture, as Quebec did last week. 

"We have tried to be optimistic that it will not," he said, but that uncertainty is why Casella continues to look for other ways to avoid a surplus of sludge at its landfill near Bangor.

"We are riding the ragged edge of not having sufficient capacity on a daily basis. And that problem came to a head here in Maine a couple of weeks ago," Ellis told members of the Maine legislature's environment and natural resources committee.

Biosolids, or sludge, seen here in an agricultural field in Quebec. U.S. company Casella Waste Systems had to truck thousands of tonnes of sludge to New Brunswick because of a surplus. (Francois Genest/Radio-Canada)

"Fortunately we were able to avert the crisis but we are by no means out of the woods." 

The Juniper Ridge landfill, owned by the state and operated by Casella, accepts sewage waste from more than 30 municipal-level sewage authorities.

Those local entities are now facing higher fees because of the additional cost of trucking the sludge to New Brunswick.

Envirem said this week none of its products are applied to agricultural lands.

Provincial government spokesperson Anne Mooers said the environment department was notified on Feb. 27 that Envirem would be receiving additional shipments.

"However, it will remain below the volumes it committed to in its environmental impact assessment registration," she said.

A Casella letter to municipal sewage authorities said the company had to move 3,600 tonnes out of the landfill each month. At this week's committee hearing, the company said it needed to find capacity for 2,300 tonnes a month.

Mooers said Envirem has a cap on imports of 100,000 tonnes annually so the Casella shipments fell below that threshold. 

     A Casella letter to municipal sewage authorities said the company had to move 3,600 tonnes out of the landfill each month. At this week’s committee hearing, the company said it needed to find capacity for 2,300 tonnes a month. (Francois Genest/Radio Canada)

Ellis questioned the logic of the Maine ban on agricultural use of sludge, pointing out PFAS are present in materials other than municipal biosolids that are not banned in the state.

He argued PFAS levels in Casella's sludge are not high enough to be a health concern.

"What we have observed is that the activities that we are a part of, with the materials that we manage today, do not negatively impact drinking water sources," he said.

"Science will tell us that the quantity in our materials is going down, and that when used appropriately, they will not negatively impact drinking water sources." 

Sarah Nichols of the Natural Resources Council of Maine said Ellis's claims amount to "misinformation."

"We were aghast by their comments," said Nichols, who attended Wednesday's committee session at the legislature.

She said the presence of PFAS in drinking water is a completely separate issue from the soil contamination that prompted the ban.

Several members of the committee also pushed back at Casella. 

The ban "was necessary legislation," said Republican representative Mike Soboleski. "We can't knock it. We had to have it. We couldn't keep putting that stuff on the ground." 

Maine’s environmental protection commissioner Melanie Loyzim told the committee the state government is also trying to find new sources of oversized bulk waste for the landfill that would allow Casella to keep more sludge at that site. (Maine government website)

A second Maine law adopted last year bans the import into the state of so-called oversized bulk waste — large, solid debris that, when mixed with sludge, would allow it to remain at the Juniper Ridge landfill without risk of leaks or runoff.

Ellis said Casella warned the state last year that the bill "was going to have clear impacts, likely dramatic impacts, on our ability to manage biosolids that we are contractually obligated to manage." 

He said the company is looking at other options including shipping biosolids by rail to a facility in western Pennsylvania. 

The shipments to New Brunswick bought it some time to explore those alternatives, he said.

Maine's environmental protection commissioner Melanie Loyzim told the committee the state government is also trying to find new sources of oversized bulk waste for the landfill that would allow Casella to keep more sludge at that site.

Her office is also hoping to develop a plan "very quickly" for a new landfill for sludge but said she wouldn't be able to present it to the committee until January 2024.

The state is also examining programs to reduce PFAS getting into waste in the first place.

"The more of the PFAS coming into our waste stream that we can have not enter the waste, the less and less concern we would need to have about the constituents in our sludge."

Nichols, who campaigned for the ban on oversized bulk waste imports to Maine, said a solution needs to be found within the state.

"We do not want our waste shipped to other areas at all," she said. "We do not want to see it going to New Brunswick."