AUGUSTA – Lawmakers began re-examining Maine’s policies on out-of-state garbage and wood waste Friday during hearings that were surprisingly short and low-key given the wide-ranging views on how the state should manage its growing trash problem.

The Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee is considering eight bills dealing with the contentious issues of landfill capacity, construction and demolition debris, importation of trash and payments to communities affected by nearby waste facilities.

Public hearings on the eight bills lasted about 5 1/2 hours. But legislators said they expect even longer work sessions in the coming weeks as they sort through the various waste-related issues. They also acknowledged the bills will not resolve some of the most controversial trash issues.

“I don’t know if we are ready to start to ask ourselves what we are going to do about the importation of solid waste,” said Rep. Bob Duchesne, a Hudson Democrat and one of the Legislature’s most active members on waste issues. “We could reverse course, but that is going to be painful.”

Duchesne opened Friday’s hearings by asking his colleagues on the committee to delve into the question of the state’s policy on out-of-state trash.

Nearly 20 years ago, Maine passed a law prohibiting the establishment of new, privately owned landfills in the state. The idea behind the law was that Maine, while powerless under federal law to stop out-of-state trash going into private landfills, could control the flow of non-Maine trash into public waste facilities.

Today, Maine only has two commercial landfills – one in Norridgewock and the other in Hampden, which is scheduled to close in late 2009.

But Duchesne said instead of reducing trash flow into landfills, the state has cut funding for recycling programs and struck a deal with Georgia-Pacific Corp. that will lead to more imported construction and demolition debris going into Maine landfills.

Duchesne based his latter statement on the expectation that a portion of the wood waste imported for use in the former G-P mill’s biomass boiler will not be suitable for incineration and will, therefore, end up in Maine landfills.

“I think there are conflicts in our state policies, and I’m not sure how we want to resolve them,” he told the committee. Duchesne is sponsor of a “place-holder” bill, LD 810, that could serve as a vehicle for the committee to make any changes.

Several other bills presented Friday dealt with the payments, known as “host community benefits,” that towns receive from landfill or incinerator facility operators.

Currently, only towns where the facility is located typically receive host community benefits to compensate for the impacts of a landfill or incinerator. Bills introduced by two Democrats from Saco – Sen. Barry Hobbins of Saco and Rep. Linda Valentino – would allow adjacent towns to receive payments if they demonstrate clear impacts.

The city of Old Town, for instance, received nearly $1 million in host community benefits from the operator of Juniper Ridge landfill, Casella Waste Systems. Trucks en route to Juniper Ridge also pass through downtown Orono, but that city receives no money.

Orono resident Paul Schroeder told the committee that Orono, as well as other affected towns, deserve compensation.

“These are trucks that didn’t used to be there, and there’s no question these trucks are having a dramatic impact on our pedestrians, on our bicyclists, on our schoolchildren and on our drivers,” Schroeder said.

Don Meagher, manager of planning and development for Casella, said he supports most aspects of the bill. But instead of the Department of Environmental Protection being the intermediary between operators and neighboring towns, Casella would rather see the negotiations handled by an independent arbitrator, he said.

The committee also heard testimony on a bill, LD 1204, that would prohibit the state from issuing any new permits for publicly owned incinerators. But several speakers pointed out that the bill also would prevent existing private incinerators, including the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington, from making upgrades that improve their performance.

While there was considerable discussion of construction and demolition debris, the committee did not hear any bills to further regulate wood waste.

Duchesne presented a resolve, LD 1596, directing the DEP to study the processing of construction and demolition debris. The resolve directs the DEP to recommend minimum standards that a processor should have to meet before landfilling the unusable wood debris in a state-owned facility.

The committee is expected to hold a work session on the waste-related bills next Tuesday.