RUMFORD – Rumford Power, a gas-fired power plant atop Industrial Park Hill off Route 108, plans to file for an air emission license with the state Department of Environmental Protection on July 2.

Tom Grace, environmental services manager for Caithness Operating Co. of Reno, Nev., said the license request is for 2008 to 2013.

The Reno company has been the caretaker of the local power plant, overseeing its operation while it is in receivership. The plant’s owner, Calpine, filed for bankruptcy in December 2005, and soon after laid off its employees. Grace said the plant, after being closed for about a year, reopened about a year ago and recalled its 17 or 18 employees.

Grace said the plant is still owned by a group of investors.

The $165 million plant was built in the late 1990s by Energy Management Inc. of Massachusetts. The plant was then purchased by California-based Calpine, which sold it to a subsidiary of Philip Morris in 2000 or 2001, according to John Flumerfelt, a Calpine spokesman.

The plant generates about 265 megawatts of electricity annually from the nearby natural gas line running along the edge of the plant’s property.

The application for the air emissions license and supporting documents are available for review at the MDEP offices in Augusta and in the Rumford town office.

Written comments on the application may be sent to Edwin Cousins, licensing engineer at the Bureau of Air Quality, State House Station 17, Augusta 04333.

A request for a public hearing on the license application or for the state’s Board of Environmental Protection to assume jurisdiction must be received within 20 days after the application is deemed complete by the DEP.