A plan to construct a solid waste transfer and processing station on County Road remains on hold and will likely not be built until at least early next year.

Casella Waste Systems, the company that owns Pine Tree Waste, has proposed building a construction and demolition debris handling facility along with a solid waste transfer station and a residential recycling drop off point on County Road.

Stu Axelrod, general manager for Casella’s southern Maine division, said the project has been delayed, but the company has not abandoned its plans for Westbrook. “It’s still on the drawing boards,” said Axelrod. “It’s not off the table.”

Axelrod did not elaborate as to the reasons for the delay, but City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the city and Casella must reach a new agreement before the project can move forward.

The state requires that a company operating a waste transfer station must have a waste management agreement with the host community. That agreement outlines such things as what kinds of waste will be accepted, how much money the municipality will pay for trash disposal and royalty payments paid by the company to the municipality for hosting the transfer station.

The city currently has an agreement with Casella that was signed in July 2000. That agreement was based on Casella’s original proposal that called for the construction of a transfer station along with corporate offices on the County Road site. The plan also called for Casella to move their hauling division to Westbrook, and register their trucks in the city, bringing approximately $100,000 to $200,000 in excise taxes into the city.

The company’s current agreement with the city states that as long as the company operates the transfer station it would agree to operate and register all of its vehicles in Westbrook. Since that agreement was signed in 2003, Casella has changed the scope of the project and made the decision to relocate their corporate offices and hauling division to a location that the company purchased on Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough.

Bryant said because the scope of the project has changed so radically, and the city will no longer be receiving the excise tax revenue from Casella’s trucks, the city feels it needs to reach a new agreement with Casella. “Nothing’s changed,” said Bryant. “They need an agreement from the host community, but the existing one is inappropriate because the project has changed.”

The city approached Casella in March to discuss a new agreement, but Bryant said the company has not initiated discussions on a new agreement.

While the Westbrook project has been stalled, Casella has recently expanded operations in other Maine communities.

This month, the company reached an agreement with the city of Lewiston to run the city’s landfill and recycling center.

Axelrod said the Lewiston deal does not affect the company’s plans to eventually move forward in Westbrook. “Lewiston is a totally separate deal,” he said.

While he did not have an exact idea when Casella would look to move forward with this project, Axelrod said it would be sometime early next year before anything would begin. “It will not be this year,” he said.

While it is uncertain when Casella and the city will work out a new agreement, Bryant said the rates the city pays Casella for trash disposal would remain unchanged for some time. “The bottom line is no matter what happens, we have a 20-year agreement for trash disposal with them at favorable rates,” Bryant said.

The city currently pays Casella $85 per ton to dispose of the city’s waste at Casella’s incinerator in Biddeford. Bryant said this rate is well under the current rates of approximately $135 per ton. The rates for trash disposal will not be affected by any new agreement between the city and Casella, Bryant said.