The Maine Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday issued a notice of violation to the owner of the Orrington property that was responsible for polluting the Penobscot River with mercury saying it isn’t moving fast enough with its cleanup.
Mallinckrodt US LLC/Medtronic has shown a “lack of meaningful progress remediating the former chloralkali manufacturing facility,” the DEP said in a statement.
The pollution originated with the HoltraChem Manufacturing Company, which operated at the site from 1967 to 1982 and produced 23,000 pounds of toxic mercury waste each year while manufacturing chemicals, including caustic soda, chlorine bleach, hydrochloric acid and the pesticide chloropicrin, for papermaking and other industries.
Mallinckrodt is the last remaining owner of HoltraChem still in existence.
The town acquired the land through tax delinquency, but Mallinckrodt was deemed responsible for cleanup of the contaminated portion of the property.
The DEP said it has pursued the site’s cleanup since 2008, and as early as 2009 accused Mallinckrodt of delaying its cleanup efforts at the 235-acre riverfront site.
On Thursday, the department said “progress has been achieved remediating the area,” but Mallinckrodt “has ceased to make meaningful progress towards remediating the remaining soil for over two years,” leaving large areas of mercury-contaminated soil remain on the site unremediated.
In its notice of violation, DEP demanded that Mallinckrodt within 30 days submit a detailed work plan to remove the contaminated soil from all unremediated areas on the property, then start implementing the plan within 15 days of the DEP approving it.
