Though a recent letter from a local waste hauling company’s attorney threatened a lawsuit if Waldoboro enforces its waste and recycling ordinance, Town Manager Linda-Jean Briggs said the town can and will continue enforcement.
Briggs said attorney Lee Bragg, of Portland firm Bernstein Shur, reviewed the ordinance on behalf of the town.
“There’s no reason why we can’t continue to enforce the ordinance, and we will continue to do so,” Briggs said of Bragg’s findings.
Attorney John Bannon wrote the letter regarding the town ordinance on behalf of Regional Rubbish Removal, a waste hauling and recycling company based in Damariscotta.
According to Mike Naylor, who co-owns Regional Rubbish with his wife, BeeBee, and his parents, his company has paid around $1000 per week since the Waldoboro Transfer Station Committee voted to support charging users who deposit solid waste but do not recycle in accordance with the ordinance.
Regional Rubbish uses a dual-sort system to separate paper products and all other materials such as plastics and tin cans, Naylor said previously. The company sells the paper products and pays to get rid of the other materials at a Boston facility, he said.
In his letter, Bannon makes a number of assertions, including that the ordinance does not require the company to deposit its collected recyclables at the transfer station and the town cannot charge Regional Rubbish under the terms of the ordinance.
Bannon’s letter also asserts that Waldoboro’s ordinance violates Regional Rubbish’s constitutional right to substantive due process of law; violates the company’s right to equal protection of the law; and illegally delegates authority of the legislative body to the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen, the transfer station committee, and the transfer station manager.
According to Briggs, Bragg will be responding to Bannon’s letter for the town.
Naylor said Bragg’s finding was to be expected.
“It’s no surprise that their lawyer would say it’s legal and our lawyer’s going to say it’s illegal,” he said.
Naylor said the company will meet with its attorney in another week or so to discuss Bragg’s finding and what the company’s options are.
In the meantime, a public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 22 at 6 p.m. on proposed amendments approved by the transfer station committee on two attachments to the waste and recycling ordinance.
Among a number of clarifications and references added to the attachments, the proposed changes include establishing Public Works Director John Daigle’s 30 percent recycling goal to the ordinance.
Daigle’s goal has been a guide used by transfer station employees to determine if users are recycling in accordance with the ordinance: essentially, if 30 percent of the materials brought to the transfer station are properly separated and recycled, the user can deposit the remainder in the trash hopper without being charged.
The proposed amendments would also establish that transfer station employees have discretion (until vehicle scales are installed) to estimate whether users are recycling in accordance with the ordinance and provides formulas for calculating the relative volumes of recycling and other solid waste.
The proposed amendments are available for review on the town’s website here.
