The ordinance was written in response to contamination concerns near a local landfill, but its broad language could require testing on more than 800 parcels.

Carrie Jones

Aug 20, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Maine Seacoast Mission.

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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—The Musson Group’s Noel Musson sat at the long desk in the Southwest Harbor Meeting Room with the members of the town’s Land Use Ordinance Review Committee August 17 and put it plainly as they tried to fix the town’s soil ordinance, overwhelmingly approved by voters in the November 2025 election.

“We’re not scientists and we’re not soil experts,” Musson said.

The town staff and the town’s planning board most likely will never be comprised of scientists and soil experts either. Yet, what they have to do is tweak the ordinance so that it is enforceable and usable for people (who also aren’t soil experts) so that it can be applied in the town.

The changes were originally adopted to address a specific risk near the Worcester Landfill, which is considered an uncontrolled site by the state due to toxins. The worries exploded last year as a subdivision was applied for—and eventually approved—adjacent to that landfill.

Since then, there have been concerns that due to the wording of the ordinance and other sites that had once been considered uncontrolled by the state the half-mile radius stipulated in the new rules would impact 850 parcels, creating a significant cost for soil testing in areas not originally intended and a significant administrative cost to the town.

Musson and the group focused on two distinct problems: tweaking that DEP uncontrolled sites standard so it didn’t apply so broadly and then clarifying the soil standards language to make it less vague and more enforceable.

An example of the problematic language would be that the new rules stipulate that there should be “no adverse impact” but that’s not defined in the town’s ordinance.

“We need to fix those standards to be more clear,” Musson said.

Another problem mentioned was that it was a “guilty until proven innocent” feel to the ordinance since it assumes that soil disturbance caused by an activity like building a foundation for a home would increase the contaminate’s impact and spread toxic chemicals and make them more likely to infiltrate groundwater. The worry is that smaller projects on those 800+ parcels (such as building a deck) would trigger soil testing.

Attendees also spoke to ways to potentially deal with the problem, such as conducting an environmental site assessment (ESA) of the landfill site so that there can be a baseline for understanding contaminant level and risk. Another suggestion was to refine the half-mile radius around the entire parcel. Another suggestion was to use language that distinguishes between remediated and non-remediated sites. Refining what triggers the soil test was another suggestion. Minor permits (building a deck or a shed) could be exempt from the mandated soil testing or the town could set a threshold for soil disturbance.

Another suggestion was adding public water/sewer district data to maps to identify parcels reliant on wells.

Potential next steps for Musson included researching the state’s definitions for remediated and uncontrolled sites and determining the cost of an ESA, finding more information on how contaminants move in the area.

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