Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §1310-S, sub-§2, as amended by PL 1997, c. 624, §15, is further amended to read:

2. Public hearing. The department may hold an adjudicatory public hearing within the municipality in which the facility may be located or in a convenient location in the vicinity of the proposed facility. The department shall hold an adjudicatory public hearing on an application for a new or expanded commercial or state-owned solid waste disposal facility that accepts special waste upon request from a resident or a property owner in the municipality in which the proposed facility is located. The department shall hold an adjudicatory public hearing for an increase in the vertical elevation of a solid waste disposal facility that accepts special waste upon request from a resident or a property owner in the municipality in which the proposed facility is located. The hearing must be conducted in accordance with Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter IV 4. Administrative expenses of a hearing held pursuant to this subsection and all costs incurred by the department in processing an application must be paid for by the applicant as provided in department rules.

Sec. 2. Resolve 2003, c. 93, §1, sub-§5 is amended to read:

5. Notwithstanding the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 38, section 1310-U, the municipality in which the disposal facility is located may not regulate the operation or any other aspect of the disposal facility as provided in Title 38, section 2173 or by means of any municipal ordinances, regulations, licenses or permits, except that the municipality may enact ordinances with respect to the operation of any expansion of the disposal facility, including any expansion of the type of waste the facility is licensed to accept, that contain standards the municipality finds reasonable, including, without limitation, standards concerning conformance with federal and state solid waste rules; fire safety; traffic safety; levels of noise heard outside the facility; the distance from existing residential, commercial or institutional uses; groundwater protection; surface water protection; erosion and sedimentation control; and compatibility of the disposal facility with local zoning and land use controls, as long as the standards are not more strict than those contained in Title 38, chapter 3, subchapter 1, articles 5- A and 6 and Title 38, chapter 13 and the rules adopted under those chapters. The municipality is prohibited from enacting stricter standards than those contained in Title 38, chapter 13 governing the hydrogeological criteria for siting or designing the expansion of or the governing of the engineering criteria related to waste handling and disposal areas of the expanded disposal facility. Such municipal ordinances must use definitions consistent with those adopted by the Department of