April 27, 2024

The Penobscot River is being polluted by the state owned, privately run Juniper Ridge Landfill. Landfill leachate is a waste by product created when rainwater filters down through layers of solid waste in a landfill, collecting a toxic cocktail of chemicals along the way. The leachate is then trucked to the Nine Dragon’s Paper mill wastewater treatment plant in Old Town, “processed” and dumped in the Penobscot River.

A Sunlight Media Collective production Filmed by Neil Shelley with additional recording by Joanna Weaver and Chek Wingo. Photographs by Nolan Altvater. Edited by Joanna Weaver Produced by Dawn Neptune Adams & Meredith DeFrancesco Narrated by Dawn Neptune Adams Audio recording by Meredith DeFrancesco Excerpts from “Juniper Ridge Landfill Megadump Part 1” Filmed & Edited by Chek Wingo for Sunlight Media Collective https://vimeo.com/462000760 Featured (in order of appearance): Lokotah Sanborn – Penobscot Nation, Activist Kathy Paul – Penobscot Nation Elder, Water Protector Charlene Francis – Penobscot Nation & Ojibwe Elder Desiree Vargas – Taino Higuayagua Tribal Councilwoman, Co-Founder of Racial Equity & Justice Sherri Mitchell – Penobscot Nation, Indigenous Rights Attorney Indigenous Peoples’ Day Water Ceremony event hosted by Sunlight Media Collective and Racial Equity & Justice on October 11, 2020.