By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

The city of Lewiston and an Auburn waste incinerator are at odds over who should pay for a proposed expansion at the Lewiston landfill.

An “ash for trash” deal between the city and Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. lets Lewiston take its trash to MMWAC to be incinerated and allows the plant to dump ash in Lewiston’s landfill.

The agreement is set to expire in April 2007, and negotiations to renew it could begin next month.

Joseph Kazar, executive director of MMWAC, is afraid Lewiston will add costs to a new contract. The costs would be passed along to the 12 communities that make up the waste corporation, Kazar said.

“Those communities, our members, already have a $43 million debt burden to shoulder, and we’re not sure we should be asking them to support Lewiston’s burden,” he said.

But the city might have to pay for a $7.5 million expansion just to keep the landfill open, if a management deal with Casella Waste Systems falls through. City Administrator Jim Bennett said some of those expansion costs would be passed along to MMWAC in the form of higher fees.

“We’re not serving our taxpayers if we ask them to go it alone,” Bennett said. “It’s less than attractive for our taxpayers and our City Council to pay for the entire thing ourselves. It has to be shared.”

Casella doubtful

It won’t be a concern if a management deal with Casella Waste Systems gets state approval, but Bennett said that’s looking doubtful now. The Maine Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Environmental Protection have both come out against the plan.

“The state is still considering their next steps, but you can say we are much less optimistic than we have been,” Bennett said.

The city negotiated the deal with Casella in May as part of its budget-cutting efforts. According to the deal, Casella and Pine Tree Waste would operate the facility, pay staff and be responsible for whatever goes into the dump. The company would also be responsible for expanding the landfill.

Lewiston would remain in control of the dump and Casella would pay the city $1 million per year.

Casella would likely bring household waste from out of state, however. The state objected, fearing that Lewiston would become the dumping ground for New England’s household trash.

Kazar also has objected to the Lewiston-Casella deal. It could turn the landfill into a competitor for MMWAC, offering prices the incinerator could not match.

“We don’t really have a problem with an expansion as long as it’s done in a way that doesn’t threaten our viability,” Kazar said. The current deal between Casella and Lewiston would be a threat, he said.

He’d rather see the Lewiston landfill be allowed to accept only ash and solid waste that cannot be incinerated.

“If they did that, I don’t think we’d have a problem,” Kazar said.

He is scheduled to meet with member communities on Tuesday to discuss the next steps. Bennett has asked Kazar and MMWAC to notify him by Jan. 6 to begin negotiations.

“Until everybody can sit down and talk, we won’t know what our next steps are,” Kazar said.

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