The majority of members of a task force examining Maine’s many trash-related issues favor repealing a state law that prevents power plant operators from firing up biomass boilers solely with wood waste from construction and demolition sites.

Maine now limits waste-to-energy plants to using no more than 50 percent construction and demolition debris, or CDD, in their fuel supply annually.

The cap, which was approved by lawmakers and state environmental regulators earlier this year, does not affect the handful of biomass facilities operating today because all are designed to burn a mix of CDD and “green” wood chips.

But the cap would hinder plans for a massive new CDD boiler originally proposed for Athens but being shopped around to other towns. That project by the firm GenPower, as well as efforts to fire up a biomass boiler in Old Town, has reignited debate about whether burning CDD represents a smart source of renewable energy or an environmental threat to host towns and their downwind neighbors.

After several months of discussion about CDD, a state commission voted 4-2 last week to recommend lifting the 50 percent cap, which has been on the books for less than eight months. Biomass facilities still would have to meet a long list of emissions and quality-control standards.

Members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Solid Waste Management are completing their recommendations before submitting them to the Legislature.

The commission’s report is nonbinding. Lawmakers, however, are expected to consider it as they delve into the controversy over wood debris incineration as well as a host of other waste issues during the current legislative session.

Task force member Greg Lounder with Eastern Maine Development Corp. said the 50 percent cap was a policy decision rather than a limitation based on scientific evidence. Lounder said he sees no reason to block boiler operators that can burn 100 percent CDD and stay within state air emissions guidelines.

The controversy over CDD is inextricably tied to another contentious issue in Maine: the landfilling of out-of-state trash.

Approximately 80 percent of the wood debris burned in Maine boilers in 2004 – more than 240,000 tons – was trucked in from out of state. But that figure does not account for the millions of pounds of CDD that was deemed unsuitable for incineration and, instead, ended up in Maine landfills.

Critics of the growing CDD industry contend that trash haulers skirt laws intended to keep non-Maine trash out of state-owned landfills. They do this by bringing out-of-state wood waste to Maine processing plants which remove the burnable wood.

The remaining “residue” waste – which sometimes accounts for most of the truckload – is considered in-state trash because it was processed in Maine.

Lounder said he felt comfortable lifting the 50 percent limitation because GenPower officials have pledged to require all suppliers of non-Maine wood debris to import only wood that meets the state’s strict content standards for CDD.

He acknowledged, however, that there are now no regulations requiring future CDD boiler operators to follow GenPower’s lead. That is an area that may need further clarification, he said.

But the two commission members who voted against lifting the 50 percent cap – Sen. John Martin of Eagle Lake and Rep. Bob Duchesne of Hudson – both expressed concern about adopting policies that could encourage more importation of non-Maine waste.

“I just don’t want to open up the state completely” to non-Maine wood waste, said Martin, who will co-chair the legislative committee that reviews most trash matters. “I think [the cap] provides some security.”

Duchesne has submitted a bill that essentially would set minimum content standards for out-of-state wood debris to avoid excessive landfilling of nonburnable debris. The Hudson Democrat predicted it would be one of several measures on wood debris before the Legislature this session.

“We’re going to keep fighting about construction and demolition debris until we get it right,” Duchesne said. “On one hand, it’s cheap fuel, but on the other hand, the opponents are never going to believe it is clean.”

One member of the waste commission, former Rep. Joanne Twomey of Biddeford, stopped attending commission meetings several weeks ago after her colleagues were unwilling to remove incineration from Maine’s three-pronged “reduce, reuse and recycle” approach to waste management.

Twomey, a vociferous opponent of CDD boilers and importation of non-Maine waste, said she plans to submit her own report to the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee.

“I got frustrated because I saw where this was going,” Twomey said. “I was hopeful this commission would do something helpful for the state of Maine.”

But Lounder said the commission members did their best considering the significant number of waste-related issues with which Maine is grappling.

“Given more time we might have been able to [develop] a more definitive policy,” he said. “But within the short timeframe provided, I think the group advanced some reasonable policy recommendations.”

For more information on the commission, or to see earlier drafts of the group’s recommendations, go to http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/solidwaste/blueribbon/index.htm.