Hampden landfill could close five years early

HAMPDEN – The town has been home to the Pine Tree Landfill for nearly 30 years, but with its space quickly filling, town officials are left wondering about its future and the host community benefit fund they negotiated in 2001.

Officials at Casella Waste Systems Inc., the company that owns the landfill, said Wednesday they hope to remain open until Labor Day 2007, even though in 2002 officials estimated the facility wouldn’t reach its maximum capacity until 2012.

Each year the town receives money from Casella for hosting the landfill and received $2.8 million between mid-January 2002, when the contract began, and the end of March 2006, according to Susan Lessard, Hampden town manager.

But with the landfill’s potential closure in sight, Lessard insists the town has not become dependent on the host community benefit money.

“Is the town dependent on that money?” Lessard asked rhetorically. “No, because it was not set up to be dependent on it; the money is not in our operating budget.”

In fact, the town is getting less money because the landfill is being filled more quickly than Casella first projected.

In 2001, Hampden town officials and Casella negotiated the host community benefit, which includes tax reimbursements to a defined group of residents who live near the landfill; a property value protection agreement; and a per-ton fee paid to the town monthly, Don Meagher, Casella manager of planning and development, said.

Casella officials estimated in 2001 that Pine Tree could accept 250,000 tons of trash a year until 2012. As a result, Casella agreed to pay Hampden $1.85 a ton for every ton of trash that entered Pine Tree until the 250,000 ton mark was reached each year. But when the amount exceeds 250,000 tons, the waste company pays only 75 cents a ton.

In 2005, the town at first received the $1.85 rate per ton rate, but by August, the town was getting only 75 cents a ton because the 250,000-ton mark had been reached. In total, 604,094 tons of trash entered Pine Tree’s gates in 2005, Lessard said.

The town received 75 cents a ton for more than half of the trash that went into the Hampden facility last year, she pointed out.

Meagher said his company did not increase the fill rate to avoid paying the town more money over a longer period of time. The rise in the rate, he said, was merely a reaction to market demand.

“From Hampden’s standpoint, they gained the time value of money to a large extent; they got much more funding sooner,” Meagher said. “If you get money sooner, you don’t have to borrow to replace and you’re getting money in 2005 instead of 2012.”

Hampden sets aside 50 percent of the monies received from Casella each year, while using the other half to pay the town’s technical consultant to monitor the landfill and fund projects related to the town comprehensive plan. Of the $231,300 appropriated to reserves each year, $160,000 of that derives from the host community benefit fund, Lessard said.

Some of the recent projects funded through the reserve account are the veterans memorial at the town office; the $25,000 donation to the Challenger Learning Center in Bangor over five years; and the internal and external renovations to be performed at the Lura E. Hoit Memorial Pool.

But with Pine Tree’s closing looming, Hampden councilors want to prepare themselves for the halt in funds.

“The host community benefit amounts we have right now are based on estimates that the landfill will be filled by 2007,” Counilor Robert Gilberti said during Monday night’s town council meeting. “What we really need to look at is if the facility shuts down and those checks stop.”

To prepare for that date, the finance committee will meet on Monday, May 22, to review the reserve account and whether some of the projects will be cut in the future or the responsibility to support these programs will fall back on the taxpayers.

“When it [the benefits] started, we knew there would be an end when it was all filled up,” Lessard said.

But town officials and residents may not have been prepared for how quickly the landfill reached its capacity limit.

Until a few months ago, Casella had submitted an application to the Department of Environmental Protection to increase its capacity, hugely extending the landfill’s life span.

Casella submitted a public benefit application to the DEP in November 2005 to increase capacity at the Hampden facility, but withdrew it on March 31. The waste company attributed their withdrawal to the extensive time the DEP took to make a decision. The application was part of a process to increase the 2.5 million cubic yards landfill’s capacity by nearly 50 percent.

Casella has yet to decide its next action, Meagher said.

The company can resubmit a public benefit application at any time, but with the closing date approaching, Lessard said she expects some action soon.

“There has been a resounding silence from the landfill since they withdrew the public benefit application,” Lessard said. “I really have no idea what they’re going to do next.”