Casella Waste Systems intends to shutter its Hawk Ridge composing facility next year after Maine regulators raised red flags about significant forever chemical pollution in the nearby environment.

For decades, the Unity Township facility in Kennebec County took residual materials from wastewater treatment plants, also known as sludge, and processed it into fertilizer.

Maine banned spreading such materials in 2022 after discovering multiple farms had been contaminated with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - known as PFAS - from sludge fertilizer. PFAS has been linked to health problems in people including low birth weight and certain cancers.

But other states haven't enacted the same fertilizer bans and Casella continued to accept and process out-of-state sludge at Hawk Ridge.

See Full Page