The state Department of Environmental Protection is proposing a $50 million bond to help wastewater treatment facilities buy the costly equipment needed to reduce the volume of sewage sludge headed to the state-owned landfill before it runs out of room by 2040.

The bond would provide grant funding to as many as five municipal wastewater facilities to install digesters and dryers that would turn the wet slurry into an easier-to-haul solid that doesn’t require the addition of out-of-state bulky waste to be stable enough to be landfilled.

“There are many wastewater districts in Maine exploring options to reduce the tonnage of sludge they send to landfill,” said DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim on Thursday. “But they have to make major capital investments that would significantly increase sewer rates for their customers.”

Initial estimates suggest a sludge dryer or digester can cost as much as $25 million, so the state bond money, if approved, would have to be coupled with a local match if DEP wants to help fund the five projects needed to provide affordable sludge services to the whole state, Loyzim said.

Loyzim talked about the bond initiative — LD 25 — at an Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine panel in Augusta. If endorsed by the Legislature’s finance committee, the bond would need two-thirds support in both the state House and Senate to be sent to voters in November.

The bond initiative could defray districts’ capital investments, keep sewer bills in check and slow the “unnecessary filling” of Maine landfill space with bulky materials, said Loyzim. Even with planned expansions, high sludge volumes have put Maine landfills on track to hit capacity by 2040.

Once a common farm fertilizer, all Maine sewage sludge is now landfilled. In 2022, Maine became the first state to ban the land application of sludge because it contains harmful forever chemicals, or PFAS, that are known to pose a public health risk in even trace amounts.

In February 2023, the operator of the state-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill stopped accepting municipal sludge deposits, saying the walls were in danger of collapse because a new state ban on out-of-state trash had left it without enough bulky waste to make the slurry stable enough to landfill.

Sewage sludge, the semi-solid byproduct of wastewater treatment plants. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal, file

The closure left sewer operators stuck with overflow tanks and tractor-trailers filled with excess sludge. The operator began hauling it to New Brunswick to be composted, albeit at a much higher cost to municipalities, until lawmakers voted to allow limited waste imports for sludge bulking purposes.

At the height of Maine’s sludge spreading days, back in 1997, Maine sent 48% of its 267,000 tons of sludge to farmers to be applied to fields, turned 38% of it into compost, and buried the final 1% in a landfill, according to state Department of Environmental Protection records.

The $50 million bond is DEP’s biggest ask this legislative session, but not its only one. It is also seeking funding for eight new positions, including two new environmental specialist positions to help applicants navigate and stay informed during the environmental permitting process, Loyzim said.

DEP will unveil an online licensing system in March that will help streamline the process, she said.

“DEP’s priority for this session is simple: We want to focus on implementing the laws that are already in place,” Loyzim told the appreciative crowd. “There are lots of ways that legislation can improve on existing environmental laws, but it doesn’t help to continuously cook up new ones.”

DEP plans to clarify existing regulations this session to help applicants understand exactly what the law allows them to do rather than pursue new regulations or expand the agency’s scope, Lozyim said. Flexibility is important, but too much can lead to confusion, costly delays and frustration.

Lozyim detailed how these new positions would help simply and speed up the permitting process when she presented her departmental budget to the Legislature’s appropriations committee.