SOUTH THOMASTON, Maine — Residents here will decide next week whether they want to stick with their decision to send their trash to the proposed Fiberight facility in Hampden or change their minds and send their garbage to southern Maine.
A special town meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the municipal building.
Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington has been the primary waste processor for nearly 190 Maine communities, including South Thomaston, but its ability to continue operating at an affordable cost will be greatly affected when its contract to sell electricity at rates above market prices expires in 2018.
Fearing the impact on budgets, the nonprofit Municipal Review Committee, which represents the member communities currently with PERC, partnered with Fiberight LLC to build a new $69 million waste-to-energy plant in Hampden to handle trash instead of PERC.
That move set off a battle between the groups, which as of earlier this month had more than 100 towns committing their trash to Fiberight and only 21 opting to stay with PERC. Some communities have found other options or have not decided yet.
At their regular town meeting in March, South Thomaston residents supported sending wastes to Fiberight. The town is part of a cooperative with neighbors Thomaston and Owls Head, however, and both those communities later voted to contract with ecomaine of Portland.
One article on the Tuesday town meeting warrant asks residents whether they want to rescind the March vote to contract with Fiberight.
Selectman Cheryl Waterman said if the town sticks with Fiberight, it will be on its own for sending the trash to the proposed Hampden facility because Thomaston and Owls Head went with ecomaine.
A subsequent warrant article asks voters whether they want to contract with ecomaine. The cost would be $70.50 per ton to start to send wastes to ecomaine. Waterman said the cost to go with Fiberight would be in the low $70s per ton, saying more specific information will be available by the town meeting.
At the March town meeting, former South Thomaston Selectman John Spear said there were risks with going with Fiberight since the plant has not yet been built, but he added that it is an innovative technology that will reduce the amount of materials burned. He also contended that the town would lose control of its waste management by going with ecomaine because that agreement would be dominated by much larger southern Maine communities such as Portland and Westbrook. He said South Thomaston would have a bigger voice if it remained with MRC and Fiberight.