MSWI Ash "recycling"

["Maine People's Alliance" <mpa@biddeford.com>]

A company called American Ash Recycling (based in Florida) wants to build an
ash "recycling" plant in Scarborough, ME.  Scarborough is a town outside of
Portland with a population of roughly 10,000 people.

There is one other ash "recycling" plant in the US, also run by American
Ash, located in Tennesee.

Ash recycling involves using a technology (that I don't know anything about)
that supposedly binds dioxins and metals in incinerator ash into an
aggregate substance that supposedly resists leaching.  The finished
aggragate is sold for use in road beds and cement products including cement
building blocks.  There have been reports that roads constructed from this
aggragate do not last, that they are already beginning to fall apart after
only a few years of use.  Won't this mean all of the contaminants in the
incinerator ash being spread all across the beautiful State of Maine over a
preiod of 10-20 years?  How awful!

The facility is to be located in a light industrial zone in Scarborough that
is adjacent to a residential neigborhood in South Portland.  

All permits are in order and have been approved.  The last hurdle to be
surmounted by American Ash was approval by the Scarborough planning board,
which was granted last week, despite strong opposition by South Portland and
some Scarborough residents.  South Portland residents will have to endure up
to 120 trucks full of ash passing through their neighborhoods each day!

A citizens group (not MPA) is appealing the environmental and other permits
and is considering  lawsuits against the Scarborough city council and the
planning board.

I am writing first to advise you all of the existance of this company and of
their plan to build 8 more of these plants abroad and 7 more in the US and
second to request any information about about this ash recycling technology
and about American Ash itself.

MPA
65 West Commercial St.
Portland, ME 04101
(207)761-4400, Fax: (207)761-1863

http://www.biddeford.com/~mpa/mpa.htm
mpa@biddeford.com

MPA, Organizing for a better Maine.