JAY — Selectpersons voted Monday to grant a one-year junkyard permit and a five-year automobile recycling permit to Clark’s Scrap Metals, doing business as Clark’s Riverside Scrap, at the former Otis Falls Mill.

The board held a public hearing prior to approving the permits. The company still has to go before the Planning Board on Aug. 11 for permits for shoreline zoning and floodplain.

They are also seeking a state solid waste permit through the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Representatives of the town and the state took a tour of the proposed site at the northern end of the mill property.

Resident Tammy Plante asked about the project’s effect on the environment, an eagle’s nest and pollution.

As far as pollution, the company adheres to DEP regulations and will adhere to the town’s standards, Leon Dorr, company project manager, said.

There will be no pollution, he said.

There will be a system in place to prevent any contaminated materials from going into the Androscoggin River. The system will be monitored in-house monthly and by a third-party independent contractor quarterly, Dorr said.

All of the material that comes in there will be loaded on rail cars and shipped out, Dorr said.

Processing would not be done on a daily basis. It is done when they get enough material to run the equipment.

Jay has very stringent shoreland zoning rules that the company intends to follow, he said.

“It is not going to be detrimental to the river,” Dorr said.

All of the runoff is treated, he said. 

Clark’s Scrap Metals has three other sites in Central Maine and they work very closely with the DEP, Board of Selectmen Vice Chairman Tim DeMillo said.

They still have to build the site, get remaining permits and begin construction on the pads prior to use, Dorr said.

It probably won’t be in operation until mid- to late September, he said.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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