AUGUSTA — Trash once meant for Biddeford’s incinerator should still be burned, according to a draft decision issued by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday.

The draft decision upholds a long-standing policy that determines how household solid waste should be handled, favoring burning trash over putting it in landfills. It does not mandate which incinerator should get the trash, leaving that decision to Casella Solid Waste, a national company that has a state contract to manage the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town.

The state is taking public comments on the draft decision through Nov. 21. A final review and decision is expected at some point.

“It depends on how many comments we actually get,” said Mike Parker, solid waste project manager for the Maine DEP. “If we get a lot of comments, it will certainly take longer, and we do not have a statutory deadline for taking and processing public comments.”

Comments should be mailed to:  Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management, Division of Solid Waste Management: Attention Michael Parker, 17 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333.

Casella is asking to change its license to operate the state-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill. The request centers on where roughly 89,400 tons of Maine-generated solid waste should go, now that the Maine Energy Recovery Co. incinerator in Biddeford is closed. The town bought the incinerator and shut it down in 2012.

The amendment would send Southern Maine trash directly to the Casella-managed Juniper Ridge landfill, bypassing other Maine incinerators, including Auburn-based Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp.

A state policy, called the hierarchy of solid waste, would send municipal solid waste to landfills as a last resort. The policy urges people to reduce what they throw away and recycle and compost what they can. The rest should be burned in a waste-to-energy incinerator, and anything that can’t be burned and the resulting ash should be sent to a landfill.

MMWAC Executive Director Joe Kazar said it’s an important policy decision.

“We were encouraged that the DEP affirmed and placed a high value on the hierarchy,” he said. “That’s been our main point all along, that after you’ve done your recycling and reduction and all that, waste-to-energy should be the preferred method of processing waste before it’s put into the ground.”

The draft decision comes down in favor of the incinerators, requiring Casella to limit as much as possible the amount of buried trash and to issue an annual report documenting its efforts.

The application also notes that Casella has an agreement with the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company in Orrington to send 30,000 tons of Maine-generated solid waste there for incineration.

Groups such as Auburn’s MMWAC had argued that Casella should be required to take the waste to the “most advantageous locations” for disposal, but the state’s decision said it does not have that authority.

Kazar said it was still early for further comment.

“It just came out and we are still digging through it,” he said.

staylor@sunjournal.com

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