BUCKSPORT, Maine — The site of the former Verso paper mill along the Penobscot River will not become a metal recycling operation as had once been considered, a company executive for new owner AIM Development told Bucksport residents Wednesday night.
Jeff McGlin, the Montreal-based scrap metal dealer’s U.S. vice president for development, answered questions from the audience at a public informational meeting held at the Alamo Theater. AIM was required to hold the public meeting before filing a demolition permit with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
When a questioner wondered if there were any plans by AIM to use the 250-acre riverfront property it acquired as a junkyard, McGlin told him no.
“We have no plans to operate a metal recycling operation in this facility,” he said. “It doesn’t make transportation sense.”
AIM Development acquired the former paper mill from Verso this January, after Verso decided to shut the facility down and to lay off about 500 people at the end of 2014.
Company officials previously had indicated that they were evaluating the site as a possible permanent recycling facility, using the deepwater port access to export salvaged metals.
On Wednesday night, McGlin said there were no firm plans to share regarding the company’s future intentions for the industrial site, but he did reiterate to the 50 or so people in the theater that AIM Development will continue to operate the 300-megawatt power plant that is there.
Once they get started, company officials estimate it will take about a year to complete the demolition of the industrial buildings on the site that aren’t related to power production. Those slated for destruction include the massive building where workers toiled at papermaking machines just a few months ago.
After the demolition is completed, McGlin said that redevelopment likely will utilize both the river and the railroad because the site includes plenty of river frontage, rail access and a dock with 30-40 feet of draft depth. AIM already has been contacted by corporations interested in transportation, barge and rail opportunities, McGlin said.
“That is what we’re hearing. People are asking when will the buildings be removed, and when can we have access to the dock,” he said.
The company still needs to get approval from the Maine DEP for the demolition work and then a local demolition permit from the town of Bucksport. Its first permit application to the Maine DEP was returned in April, McGlin acknowledged, and a previously-stated intention to start the demolition in late spring did not occur.
“The DEP said this is a large project — we want to make sure we understand everything you want to do,” he told the crowd, adding that the department had questions about noise and dust levels.
In response to the DEP’s concerns, McGlin said the company has been undertaking trial demolitions at one of its sites in another state, in order to monitor and reduce noise and dust levels.
“What can we expect in terms of noise and air quality?” one person in the crowd asked the executive.
“You might hear some things,” he said. “It’s not a high level, from a decibel standpoint, and it’s not consistent.”
He said that at one point, the paper mill operator installed a complete underground fire protection system, and so AIM will use that water-based system for dust control during the demolition process.
Others in the crowd wanted to know what AIM Development had planned for local lakes. Verso owned water rights on some lakes and those rights were transferred to AIM during the sale. The paper company used water from those lakes to make steam for the power plant.
McGlin said that although AIM is using substantially less water than the papermill, it is maintaining the same water levels in the lakes that Verso did.
After the meeting was over, attendee William Gilley of Bucksport said he was a little skeptical of AIM’s plans, adding that he had friends and family members who worked at the mill and were among those thrown out of work when it closed.
“There’s no real concrete plans to develop the space,” he said. “The bottom line is to replenish the workforce that was lost.”
But John Paul Lalonde, also of Bucksport and a former Verso employee, said he thought McGlin hadn’t ducked any of the questions.
“I was pleased he didn’t say ‘I can’t answer that, I can’t answer that,’” Lalonde said.
Bucksport Town Manager Derik Goodine said that the public meeting helped clear up rumors going around town.
“I would say it was a good opportunity for people to ask questions and get some answers to what has been whispered theories of what was happening and how things were going to be done,” he said.