LEWISTON – Lewiston will be in the landfill business through 2017, councilors agreed Monday.

They voted to extend a cost-saving deal between Lewiston and the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. for another 10 years.

According to that deal, MMWAC takes Lewiston’s trash collections and burns it in its Auburn incinerator. Lewiston takes MMWAC’s leftover ash and stores it in the city landfill.

The new agreement, the amount of annual waste Lewiston can bring to the incinerator to 2,500 tons. The old agreement allowed the city to bring in 3,600 tons annually, but the city never brought in more than 2,200 tons. City Administrator Jim Bennett called it an insignificant change.

“It’s the same deal we’ve had for the last 10 years,” Bennett said.

But it does mean Lewiston will have to provide some form of landfill, however.

“It will require you to expand the landfill in a few years and be in the landfill business,” Bennett said. “We will definitely have to expand our landfill because of this agreement.”

The deal has been in place since 1997, but was renewed in 2001. It was threatened last year, after a private management deal for the Lewiston landfill fell apart.