SACO -- A real estate development company undertaking the $100 milliion Saco Island project is attempting to buy the Maine Energy Recovery Company, a company spokesman said today.

Winthrop-based Mattson Development, LLC, has been in talks with Casella Waste Management, the parent company of MERC, for several months, according to Mattson spokesman Mark Robinson. Calls to officials at Vermont-based Casella were not immediately returned.

Details about the proposed agreement were not available. Robinson said officials for the two companies have reached a verbal agreement about the type of plan needed to allow Mattson to buy MERC.

A press conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Island Point.

The trash incineration plant sits on the Biddeford side of the Saco River, close to Saco Island.

Mattson indicated in a press release that the company would shut down the incinerator if it were successful in purchasing the controversial site. There have been numerous attempts to close it before.

In 2005, voters in Saco and Biddeford considered a proposal to buy the plant for $20 million and shut it down in 10 years. The proposal failed to pass in both cities, with many residents saying it was too expensive.

Last year, Biddeford's then-Mayor Wallace Nutting and his administration worked unsuccessfully with Casella to come up with a statewide plan for reorganizing solid waste disposal in Maine that would have allowed MERC to close. Current Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey has made closing the plant a high priority for her administration.

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