A Bangor area waste-to-energy facility and an organization of communities it serves have resolved their differences over a separation agreement that triggered competing Superior Court lawsuits.
In a prepared statement, representatives of the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. and the Municipal Review Committee said they had reached an agreement leading to the withdrawal of the lawsuits and a clearer path toward the dissolution of their business relationship over the next 16 months.
Ted O’Meara, a spokesman for PERC, says the complex issues relating to community contracts needed to be ironed out in order to dissolve the partnership.
“After several decades how do you wrap up an arrangement like this?” he says. “There are a number of different issues that had to be worked out and those have all been resolved, and so the path forward is really clear for both PERC and the MRC to go their separate ways.”
Greg Lounder, executive director of the MRC, said the agreement was a win-win for both parties.
“We’ve had a viable constructive partnership in place for many years, and I’m quite pleased that we’ve been able to bring an amicable and fair and equitable wind-up and resolution to the existing partnership,” he says. “It puts each entity in a position to focus on its post-2018 plans.”
Many MRC members are taking their trash to the new Fiberight biogas waste-to-energy facility in Hampden, while others plan to stay with PERC or seek other waste disposal options.