Senator Carson, Representative Tucker, and distinguished members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee: My name is Nick Bennett, I reside in Hallowell, and I am the staff scientist for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). NRCM is Maine’s largest environmental advocacy group with more than 20,000 members and supporters. I am testifying in Read More
HoltraChem
Estimated Cost of Penobscot River Mercury Cleanup Balloons to More than $240M
By Bill Trotter and Judy Harrison, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story The recommended remediation of the Penobscot River estuary due to mercury pollution from a defunct chemical plant would cost between $246 million and $333 million, according to a report filed Tuesday in federal court in Bangor. That is far higher than a Read More
Removing Mercury from Penobscot River Likely Won’t be Easy
By Bill Trotter, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story Exactly how does someone clean toxic mercury deposits out of a section of a tidal river more than 30 miles long? That’s the main question a federal judge is expected to decide next year as part of a court-ordered cleanup of mercury dumped over decades Read More
Judge Orders Mallinckrodt Manufacturing to Fund Mercury Cleanup Plan for Penobscot River
The ruling is a step toward requiring the company to pay to clean up pollution from the former HoltraChem site – a cost estimated at $130 million. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story A federal judge ordered Mallinckrodt Manufacturing Co. on Wednesday to pay to develop a detailed plan to clean Read More
Judge Seeks Plan for Cleanup of Penobscot River at HoltraChem Site
By Dawn Gagnon, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story BANGOR, Maine — A federal court judge issued a ruling Wednesday ordering that an engineering firm be hired to develop a plan to clean up mercury deposited in the Penobscot River by a defunct Orrington chemical plant. HoltraChem, which operated from 1967 to 1982, produced Read More
Prolonged Legal Battle Over Penobscot River Mercury Cleanup Headed to Federal Court
By Dawn Gagnon, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story BANGOR, Maine — A 14-year legal battle over the cleanup of mercury in the Penobscot River will rev up next week, when a trial begins on a lawsuit filed by a Maine-based citizens group and its national ally against a former owner of the defunct Read More
State Plan Changes after Delay in Reporting Mercury in Lobster
Portland Press Herald news story by Scott Dolan, staff writer State Toxicologist Andrew Smith received an urgent message in 2011: A team of independent scientists had discovered dangerously high levels of mercury in black ducks in a marsh near the mouth of the Penobscot River. But what Smith didn’t know was that the same scientists Read More
Fisherman to Find New Place for Traps After Lobstering Banned Downstream from Former Chemical Plant
By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story STOCKTON SPRINGS, Maine — Mercury contamination found in muscle tissue of lobsters at the mouth of the Penobscot River led to the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ decision to close a small area to fishing for at least two years. “This closure is being taken Read More
Maine Supreme Court to Hear Case on Orrington Hazardous Waste Site Cleanup
Mallinckrodt LLC is appealing an order to spend an estimated $250 million on contamination from the former HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. plant on banks of the Penobscot River. By Scott Dolan, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story An environmental dispute that has gone on for years about cleaning up one of the most contaminated sites Read More
