Old Town Wants To Dig Up Its Nasty Old Landfill And Move It

Wait....what?!

Man, I thought we had troubles in Hampden with our little swap garage. But Old Town may have just pulled a "hold my beer" moment...

Their old landfill has been inactive since 2014. Mostly because the spot is not "lined". When a landfill is properly lined, chemicals and other potentially hazardous materials can't seep into the surrounding soil and cause big-time pollution. So they're proposing digging it all up and moving it....... 5 miles down the road.

But move it to where?

Old town shares access to another dump with the town of Alton, which is properly prepared to receive the type of construction waste that Old town is looking to move. Their previous site is all debris from construction projects and has the potential to do harm to the area around it.

So the town has filed an application with the DEP to move it from its current site. But this process could take a while. Once the DEP approves a project like this, they have a year to decide if it's even viable. As of now, according to the BDN, the DEP has received the application, but it's still pending approval.

That sounds pretty expensive.

Well, it won't be cheap, that's for sure. But, if the DEP approves this project, Old Town could get up to 75% of the money back from DEP funding. The whole project could cost the town about $350,000. So they could get over $260,000 of that back, leaving Old Town on the hook for about $90,000. That could be worse, considering the proposal.

If it's all approved and the whole thing goes through, Old Town hopes to start the work in the fall of 2022, so there's all kinds of time for the whole thing to fall through. Or succeed. Who knows? Either way... Old Town might move their old dump to a new dump. No matter how many times you say it, it doesn't stop being odd...