The days of sending Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District waste to a landfill are numbered. Station Manager Steve Lewis reported June 10 the Municipal Review Committee, to which the district belongs along with 114 other Maine communities, has approved the sale of the Hampden biomass facility to Delta Thermo Inc. of Pennsylvania. The facility was previously owned by Coastal Maine Resources, LLC, a waste disposal company formed by Fiberight of Maryland to handle municipal waste from MRC members in 2018. But the new company had trouble getting state environmental permits and had management problems. Coastal Maine Resources closed permanently in May 2020. 

During the June 10 refuse district trustees’ meeting, Lewis reported Delta Thermo was the only bidder. In 2018, the MRC’s 30-year agreement with PERC (Penobscot Energy Recovery Co.) ended. The MRC entered into another long term agreement with Fiberight to send their municipal waste to the newly built Hampden facility. “This was really the only viable option,” Lewis said. “There has been recent media criticism of Delta, but they were the only ones with financial resources to operate the facility,” he said. 

Since Coastal Maine’s closure, the disposal district has sent municipal refuse to a Norridgewock landfill. Lewis reported the district’s only other option was PERC which charges $95 per ton compared to the $65 per ton charged by the landfill and Delta Thermo. 

On June 15, Rod Carr, public affairs manager at PERC, refuted Lewis’s comparison via email. “At no time has PERC’s tipping fee been $95.00, not now, and not ever before. In fact, our current tipping fee is $79.20 per ton, and that is after two increases based upon the CPI on April 1, 2020 and again based upon CPI on April 1, 2021,” wrote Carr. “We also want to point out that prior to 2018 when the 30-year contracts expired, all contracts were between PERC and the municipalities not the MRC.” 

“We want to recycle, but the cost difference between $95 and $65 would’ve been $140,000 per year. So Delta Thermo is really our only choice,” he said. On June 2, the sale was finalized. Lewis reported what was once a partnership between Fiberight and MRC will change in about a year’s time. Under the original deal, the MRC owned the land the Hampden biomass facility was on. The new agreement allows Delta Thermo to buy the property after meeting specific goals. “After Delta shows they can handle capacity, they can purchase the property. I don’t expect that to happen until at least next year,” he said. 

Lewis expects to be sending district refuse to Hampden by the end of August. 

In other action, the district plans on sending joint-customers of Giles Rubbish and the refuse station one bill beginning in July. Lewis reported by merging their “Trash Flow” software into both operations, customers could pay their entire bill either online or phone with one payment. Trustees also approved a one-year deal with Colby & Gale for propane and heating oil. The district locked into $1.99 per gallon for propane and $2.59 for heating oil.

Trustees meet next at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 8.

This article has been updated since its original posting.