Federal judge orders Mallinckrodt to pay for mercury cleanup plan
A federal judge Wednesday ordered Mallinckrodt Manufacturing Co. to pay to develop a detailed cleanup plan for mercury in the Penobscot River in what could potentially become one of the largest and costliest environmental remediation projects in Maine history, according to the Portland Press Herald.The newspaper reported that U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr. said an engineering firm will study the range, cost and practicality of removing the mercury from the river bottom near Orrington to the mouth of Penobscot Bay.
The judge agreed with the two plaintiffs, the Maine People’s Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, that the Penobscot estuary “continues to suffer irreparable harm from ongoing mercury contamination,” according to the Press Herald.
The cost for cleaning up south of the former HoltraChem site in Orrington has been pegged at $130 million, the newspaper said.
The judge’s ruling is the latest in a legal battle going back more than a decade over responsibility for the tons of mercury that ended up in the Penobscot from the former HoltraChem industrial facility in Orrington.
While not the definitive cleanup order plaintiffs have been seeking since 1999, Woodcock’s decision was hailed as a milestone by a Maine People’s Alliance representative.
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