Trash talk | The battle between MERC and its host cities continues
After tension between Casella Waste Systems and officials opposed to the company’s trash incinerator in Biddeford boiled over into a very public and bitter back and forth in recent weeks, the governor helped convene a task force to try and solve a riddle that has plagued Biddeford and Saco for more than two decades — what should be done with MERC?
The challenge of encouraging economic development despite the presence of the Maine Energy Recovery Co., the trash incinerator in the center of Biddeford’s downtown known as MERC, is unique to Maine, according to Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner and task force co-chair John Richardson, because it is the only privately owned trash incinerator in the state.
Since MERC was first proposed to the city of Biddeford in 1982, the facility, which generates electricity from about 280,000 tons of waste annually, about half of which comes from outside of the state, has faced resistance from residents concerned about the facility’s
odor, safety and alleged air pollution. One of the company’s earliest opponents was Joanne Twomey, a housewife who lived about a mile from the facility and became increasingly vocal about the toxic ash she says the facility emitted. Twomey is now Biddeford’s mayor, and her years-long beef with MERC became a very public spat with Casella CEO John Casella last month.
Twomey wants the incinerator gone, and was encouraged by a clause in the contract between Biddeford and Casella in which the city and the company agreed “to work cooperatively towards the closure of Maine Energy in a manner that furthers their mutual interests.” So after Casella Senior Vice President and spokesman James Bohlig was recently quoted in the Portland Press Herald saying the company does not want to shut the plant down, but rather to sell it, perhaps to another waste handler, Twomey sent a snippy letter to John Casella that was forwarded to area press by Twin Cities Renaissance, a grassroots group that wants to close MERC.
“I don’t know about Governor Baldacci, but we are distinctly unhappy with this appalling turn of events…,” Twomey wrote. “It would be helpful if your response is straightforward and not packaged with corporate platitudes.”
John Casella’s letter to Twomey three days later was also forwarded to the press by Twin Cities Renaissance and it included three bolded and underlined passages preceded by the words “Plain English Message,” several pointed references to Casella’s clarity on the matter, and a note that “if the task force’s mission is inconsistent with the interests of our shareholders, something we have never remotely intended to participate in, then we won’t participate.”
Meanwhile, other forces are pressuring MERC to change business as usual. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection served the company an odor citation on Jan. 15 and, in mid-April, Barry Hobbins, state senator for Saco and part of Biddeford, filed emergency legislation to prohibit a waste incinerator from transferring its operating license to a new owner and block the state from granting a new license unless the host community consents to the operation. And pollution accusations continue to dog the facility — in early May the nonprofit Toxics Action Center called MERC’s advertising campaign touting its green credentials “hypocritical.”
Seeking compromise, consensus
The task force was formed to cool the debate enough to allow the cities and the company to come to a consensus. In light of Twin Cities’ penchant for feeding the press, the 11 members of the panel are prohibited from speaking to the media about the task force’s substantive discussions with Casella.
“At this stage of the game, we’re not prepared to jeopardize any of that conversation,” explains John Bubier, Biddeford city manager.
The challenge at hand is to accommodate Casella’s search for a MERC buyer with Biddeford and Saco officials’ desire to see the incinerator shut down. According to Bubier, MERC generates about $700,000 annually in property taxes, but Biddeford’s downtown mills — with historic tax credits to promote redevelopment and a new Downeaster train station nearby — could generate close to $60 million annually in taxes, according to the city’s current mil rate, if the mills were developed to their full potential.
But Casella officials counter the incinerator is a key part of economic development in the city, employing 80 people full time and encouraging the local economy, they say, by donating $150,000 for area mill redevelopment. Casella’s first priority is to sell the property, at a price no lower than $50 million, to allow the company to pursue a new focus on zero-waste processing facilities and, critics contend, to pay off some of Casella’s company debt. Casella Senior Vice President Bohlig says the company is ready to sell as soon as a qualified buyer emerges. It is talking with at least two potential buyers, Bohlig says, neither of which is Maine-based. One of those potential buyers is a waste management company, the other Bohlig describes as a “renewable energy equity investor.” Bohlig also mentioned Biddeford and the state as potential buyers, though the DECD’s Richardson says neither option has been discussed by the task force.
The prospect of a sale to another private waste processor spooks incinerator opponents like Twomey, who worry a change of hands would nullify years of stop-and-start efforts to close the plant. But even if MERC remains in Casella’s hands, Bohlig says trash will still be processed there, though the company would upgrade the facility to make its operation more eco-friendly.
“If we’re not able to sell it,” Bohlig says, “we’re prepared to operate it for the next 20 years.”
Stephen Goodrich sees potential in the area even if the trash incinerator stays open. Goodrich, CEO of the Portland payment processer PowerPay and new owner of the Riverdam Mill in downtown Biddeford, is the only area commercial property owner on the task force.
“We didn’t acquire that [Riverdam] property with the understanding or belief that MERC was going anywhere anytime soon,” says Goodrich. “It would be disingenuous to say that we wouldn’t benefit from something other than MERC being there, but at the same time, it’s a private company.”
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