BREAKING NEWS: Orrington incinerator plant in foreclosure; auction slated for July 12
Municipal waste filling up landfills as troubled plants battle financial challenges
MOUNT DESERT, June 6, 2023 - The region’s municipal waste management has been dealt another major setback as the incineration plant which has served DownEast for three decades was put up for auction last week.
Penobscot Energy Recovery Company was the major backup for the Hampden waste-to-energy plant which was closed three years ago by Municipal Resource Committee, the consortium of 115 Maine towns that includes all of MDI.
The PERC plant has had numerous fires and has been operating sporadically. Waste has been bypassing the plant directly to landfills in Alton and Norridgewock.
PERC was the primary municipal waste plant for the region until 2019 when MRC opened its $90 million plant in Hampden, forcing PERC to considerably downsize its operations, according to the Bangor Daily News. In 2018, PERC reached the end of a lucrative power-purchase agreement with Emera Maine.
MRC’s Hampden plant closed in less than a year when the operator, Coastal Resources of Maine, ran out of money.
PERC agreed to accept the diverted trash from MRC but also added new costs, including the extra fuel to run its equipment and overtime pay for its 52 workers.
PERC general manager Henry Lang told the BDN, “If I had to guess, I would say that we’re not making a profit on it.”
The MRC expressed gratitude to PERC for accepting the new waste deliveries.
“They didn’t have to do it, but they did it because it’s the right thing to do to keep more [municipal solid waste] out of [the] landfill,” MRC director Michael Carroll told the BDN in 2020.
The MRC itself is in the last stages of completing sale of the Hampden plant to Innovative Resource Recovery, which was created by a multi-billion dollar asset management firm, White Oak Global Advisors, to develop the Hampden plant as a model for municipal waste management.
Carroll said he is confident the sale will close this month. He is scheduling a “town hall” meeting among MRC members to explain details of the sale. IRR is the third company to have shown an interest in the Hampden plant. Other first two failed to generate enough investment interest.
Even if the sale is consummated, it will take two years to bring the plant to full operation in compliance with state permits, Carroll said.
Some of the MRC members, including the four MDI towns, have temporary arrangement to recycle some of their waste. But most of it has been going to landfills.
The listing on the Keenan Auction Company’s website stated that a preview for prospective buyers has been scheduled for June 20.