It is only the first step, but the staff of the Land Use Regulation Commission this week recommended that the commission approve a zone change for the Marion Transfer Station to build a construction demolition debris landfill on 120 acres in Township 14 in rural Washington County.

The matter now goes before the full commission on Aug. 1 in Greenville.

In April 2006, the directors of the Marion Transfer Station filed an application with LURC requesting a zoning change to industrial use for 190 acres of a 4,700-acre forested parcel within Township 14. A public hearing was held in November 2006 at the University of Maine at Machias.

In March 2007, the commission allowed the transfer station to reopen the hearing to amend its petition by reducing the area to be rezoned from 190 to 120 acres.

According to the proposed recommendation, the parcel is located three miles east of Route 191 and is reached by a land management road known as the Thirty-Seven Road, which bisects the land.

The transfer station now has 16 member communities counting the Washington County Unorganized Territories as one member. The transfer station handles 6,000 tons of municipal solid waste and 20,000 to 30,000 tons of CDD annually, the LURC staff report said.

“In 1999, the transfer station received permits from the commission and the Department of Environmental Protection to construct and operate a 6-acre, conventional (non-secure) CDD landfill on a 60-acre site near its transfer station in Marion Township. That site is approaching capacity,” the report said.

The transfer station accepts CDD from members, nonmember Washington County towns and two private waste hauling companies.

During the requested zone change process, the transfer station staff submitted letters of support from the Sunrise County Economic Council and the towns of East Machias and Charlotte. The towns of Pembroke, Lubec, Machiasport, Whiting, Wesley, Cutler and Meddybemps submitted other letters of community support, the staff report said.

Although more than 15 people at the November hearing voiced opposition to the project, the Clean Water Coalition was the only official intervenor.

Among the CWC’s concerns: proximity to wetlands, vernal pools and Atlantic salmon streams, and the potential for future expansion of the proposed facility, among other things.

Reacting to the staff recommendation, CWC spokeswoman Nancy Oden said Thursday she was disappointed. She also noted that the Greenville meeting was a four-hour trip from Jonesboro, the home of the CWC.

“Notwithstanding the long trip, Clean Water Coalition will be at the LURC commissioners’ meeting on Aug. 1 in Greenville to present what we believe to be the majority of Washington County citizens’ views on this proposed dump – the answer is ‘NO TOXIC DUMP,'” Oden wrote in an e-mail to the Bangor Daily News.

But the Washington County commissioners said in their letter of support written last year that they favored the zone change.

County Manager Linda Pagels-Wentworth said Friday that this was just the first step in the process. “The zoning has been approved, this is not approval of the project,” she said. She said the next step would be for the transfer station to file for the necessary permits with the DEP. “There will be an opportunity for comment and supportive data and public hearings,” she said of the DEP process.