HAMPDEN – Even if Casella Waste Systems Inc. doesn’t receive the go-ahead to increase capacity at its Pine Tree Landfill, the company plans to explore building a local processing facility that would make it easier to fulfill its fuel obligation to the Old Town paper mill.

Those plans are long-term, however, and would require the Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill to actually be able to burn processed wood or construction and demolition debris – something it has not done since it bought a used biomass boiler last year.

As part of an agreement with the state, Casella is required to provide G-P with 100,000 tons of fuel necessary to run the boiler. Right now, most of that fuel is not processed wood but rather other types of wood fuel.

The closest location to process construction and demolition debris is at a facility in Lewiston. Because processed wood is the most cost-effective fuel for G-P’s biomass boiler and takes up the most space at Pine Tree Landfill, however, Casella wants to process its wood debris closer to home.

“We don’t [currently] have capacity to produce that much fuel. We would have to build and operate a much larger facility,” Don Meagher, manager of planning and development for Casella, said Tuesday.

“Our intention is to do the processing here in Maine, go through the permitting process and then find a facility,” he added, though he didn’t say where that facility might go.

While Casella still is seeking to increase capacity at Pine Tree by about 50 percent, or 2.5 million cubic yards, it also is looking at other options to extend the life of the Pine Tree Landfill, according to Meagher.

Area residents have expressed concern about sorting and monitoring the waste, which has prompted the state Department of Environmental Protection to take a closer look at regulations regarding beneficial use of solid waste.

As a result, G-P’s permit to burn construction and demolition debris has been held up in the appeals process and is not scheduled to be addressed anytime soon.

“The staff involved are making some changes in response to concerns,” DEP representative Cyndi Darling said. “With rule making, there is usually a realistic goal, but no actual deadline.”

Any processed wood would result in at least 23 percent of leftover nonprocessed waste, Meagher said. If the wood is processed in Maine, the leftover debris can be sent either to Pine Tree or to Juniper Ridge in Old Town, a state-owned, Casella-operated facility.

If Casella continues to take in debris processed out of state, which it did more of in 2005 than in either of the two previous years, then the leftover debris can be sent only to Hampden, which already is nearing capacity.

Meagher said that if the construction and demolition debris could be burned for fuel locally it would free space at the landfill for other types of waste.

“If G-P doesn’t get ability to burn construction and demolition debris, most of what we’re currently landfilling will remain there,” he said. “Our hope is that they will get over that rule-making issue, and we will be able to provide it to them.”

Others, however, are worried that building another wood processing facility in Maine would encourage Casella to solicit waste from out of state, which is permissible by interstate commerce laws.

As for the Pine Tree expansion project, the DEP has yet to make a decision on Casella’s public benefit application. The agency has until Feb. 28 to let Casella know of its decision to move the project forward or to scrap it.

The DEP recently requested a breakdown of the types and origin of waste accepted at the landfill, and the amount of construction and demolition debris that would be diverted from the landfill to feed G-P’s biomass boiler.