BEP delays final HoltraChem decision
A Board of Environmental Protection ruling issued today pushes a decision on the future use of the old HoltraChem site in Orrington into July, but Paul White, Orrington's town manager, says the ruling reflects progress.
"There were no final solutions, but there were some tentative decisions made," he says. "Essentially we're still playing a waiting game. We expect the BEP order will be finalized in July."
The BEP's ruling was in response to the former operator's challenge of a 2008 Maine Department of Environmental Protection order that laid out a $250 million cleanup plan at the former chemical processing plant.
"Our plan is to start to develop it, but we can't if it's tied up by DEP," says White of the site. "We're asking for relief from that."
The town owns the 235-acre property, which it took through nonpayment of taxes in 2004. From 1967 through 2000, the company, under various owners, made chemicals for the paper industry. HoltraChem closed the plant in 2000 when it filed for bankruptcy. Mallinckrodt, which operated the plant from 1967 through 1982, is responsible for the site's cleanup, and has already spent $40 million for those efforts.
White says the plant provided about 40 good paying jobs and annually contributed $200,000 to the tax rolls. Ideally, the town would like to see the property restored so it could seek a new use and new tenant for it.
But at issue are competing proposals to remediate portions of the site -- some contaminated by mercury and other heavy metals -- to make it suitable for redevelopment. The DEP order calls for the removal of buildings, five landfills and contaminated soil at a cost of $250 million. Another proposal, submitted by the environmental consulting firm Woodard & Curran hired by Mallinckrodt, proposes smaller-scale remediation of the site costing between $90 million and $100 million. Under the Woodard & Curran proposal, one landfill is removed, one is capped and the other three remain.
White, who says the town is concerned primarily with protecting the health of residents and the Penobscot River, has publicly endorsed the Woodard & Curran option, with stipulations. The town wants the board to direct Mallinckrodt to purchase the contaminated portion of the site -- about 20 acres, which White says Mallinckrodt has agreed to. The town is also asking the board to order an immediate cleanup of the property, fearing further litigation will delay any remediation efforts. And it is requesting financial guarantees that Mallinckrodt can undertake the remediation to the board's standards.
In its appeal of the DEP order, Mallinckrodt argued that digging up 360,000 tons of material and disposing of it in Canada is unnecessary and does not increase the environmental benefit of the Woodard & Curran option, which costs $150 million less. Mallinckrodt stipulates it would implement the Woodard & Curran option, but not the DEP's, according to the appeal.
The Maine People's Alliance has joined the action as an intervener, submitting a March 19 brief affirming the DEP order and advocating for complete removal of all contamination. In the brief, the MPA argues that Mallinckrodt is a "sin-eater ... a business entity solely constructed to assume the sins, the liability, for another corporation," and is skeptical of its financial means and corporate will to complete the remediation. Mallinckrodt is a subsidiary of Covidien, a global health care company.
White says the BEP's ruling today endorses removing two landfills, and capping the other three.
He doubts the July ruling will end legal maneuvers. Depending on its outcome, the BEP decision will likely be challenged by some of the parties, leaving the town still twiddling its thumbs.
"We've been in limbo since 2000," he says. "We'd like to begin moving forward at some point."
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments