3. Any agreement for the operation of the disposal facility must be established by the office through a competitive bidding process and must require the operator to indemnify the office for liabilities and costs associated with the acquisition, development and operation of the disposal facility. All persons submitting proposals in response to the request for proposals to operate the disposal facility are required to include with their bids up to a $20,000 nonrefundable deposit, as determined by the office, to offset the office's costs associated with the transactions authorized under this resolve and the cost to the City of Old Town and the Town of Alton to establish a joint citizen advisory committee authorized under this resolve.

4. Nothing in this resolve permits the abrogation of, abrogates or intends to abrogate the sovereign immunity of the State with respect to the acquisition agreement authorized under this resolve.

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