Plans to reopen shuttered Maine waste facility fall through

A deal between the Municipal Review Committee (MRC)—a group representing roughly 115 Maine towns and cities for their waste management—and a New-York based financial firm to purchase the shuttered Hampden, Maine, waste plant has fallen through.

As reported by the Bangor Daily News, MRC selected Revere Capital Advisors LLC last year as its key financial partner in reopening the Hampden waste facility that has been closed for more than two years. Their plan was to sell a portion of the limited liability company, which the committee formed to buy the Hampden plant, to the financial firm.

However, after a prospective operator dropped out and key changes to environmental permits were not granted by the deadline, MRC’s exclusivity period for review ended, according to the committee’s executive director Mike Carroll.

This is the most recent delay following years of failed attempts to reopen the plant. In August 2021, Pennylvania-based Delta Thermo Energy Inc. tried to purchase the facility but lost exclusive rights to do so after failing to prove it could finance the sale. As previously reported by Waste Today, Delta also did not cover the costs to keep the plant in working condition over the winter months.

The facility was originally closed in June 2020 after its original owner, Coastal Resources of Maine, struggled to pay for expenses. The company also faced a lawsuit from a contractor alleging it owed at least $1.2 million for staffing and running the facility.

“While we are disappointed that Revere Capital Advisors LLC was not able to close on the Hampden facility partnership during the exclusivity period, we welcome them to continue to work with us to invest in MWS,” Carroll said at the committee’s board meeting.

With the exclusivity period over, MRC is open to and seeking out other financial partners that could fund the plant’s restart, which is still slated for 2023.