AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has filed another request for more information from the Municipal Review Committee’s proposed landfill/solid waste facility.

The MRC, which represents the 187 Maine communities that dispose of trash at the PERC plan in Orrington, fears that solid waste costs will skyrocket when PERC loses energy subsidies at the end of its current contract in 2019. The MRC has proposed siting the landfill/facility in either Greenbush or Argyle – locations which have been controversial with local residents.

After the MRC filed for a determination of public benefit for the project, Karen Knutti of the DEP sent a list of ten questions in May, which attorneys for the MRC promptly answered. Knutti, however, now has asked for additional information.

In a letter sent last week to MRC Executive Director Greg Lounder, Knutti noted that the MRC’s application considered several possible waste management scenarios in order to determine the types and quantities of waste it expects to have a need to landfill. She requested an update, asking whether the MRC has been able to eliminate any of those scenarios or otherwise narrow the range of types and quantities of waste it expects to need to landfill.

Knutti added that Lounder had misspoke at a meeting on the determination of public benefit earlier this month.

“In your remarks at (the) public meeting, you stated that the public benefit determination for the landfill is required before MRC can apply for a license for the integrated solid waste facility it is contemplating. The public benefit determination is only necessary before applying for a landfill,” said Knutti. “ MRC could apply for the processing/recycling/organics management aspects of its plan without a public benefit determination.”

The DEP is still reviewing the request for a determination of public benefit for the MRC proposal, While no date was set for when that decision would be made, the MRC is trying to fast track that request and hopes to have an answer by early September.