The proposed expansion of the state-owned landfill, operated by Casella Waste Systems, has long raised concerns about PFAS contamination, air pollution, and the cumulative environmental burdens placed on nearby communities. Photo: Shutterstock
March 23, 2026 (Portland, ME) – The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a new public benefit determination allowing the proposed expansion of the Juniper Ridge Landfill to move forward despite overwhelming concerns about pollution, public health, and the impacts on the Penobscot Nation.
“The court couldn’t have been clearer: look at the full picture – the pollution, the history, the cumulative harm,” said Nora Bosworth, staff attorney at Conservation Law Foundation (CLF). “Instead, DEP has once again treated environmental justice as a checkbox rather than a commitment to the people the law was meant to protect.”
The decision comes after a Penobscot County Superior Court judge rejected DEP’s earlier approval and ordered the agency to reconsider the project’s cumulative environmental justice impacts. That ruling resulted from an appeal by the Penobscot Nation and CLF.
“For generations, the Penobscot Nation has worked to raise the many impacts our community faces at once – on our health, our lands, and the Penobscot River, the oldest citizen of our Nation,” said Kirk E. Francis, Tribal Chief of the Penobscot Nation. “This decision does not reflect the lived reality of our people. Our voices and our knowledge of this place must be meaningfully considered when those in power make decisions that will impact our land and community.”
The Penobscot Nation and CLF are reviewing the updated determination to evaluate next steps.
The proposed expansion of the state-owned landfill, operated by Casella Waste Systems, has long raised concerns about PFAS contamination, air pollution, and the cumulative environmental burdens placed on nearby communities.
Experts are available for further comment.
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