BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 23, 2021
The onetime owner of a shuttered chemical plant in Orrington would spend between $187 million and $267 million to clean up mercury contamination in the Penobscot River estuary under the terms of a settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The settlement, if approved by a judge, would bring to an end a 21-year legal battle over pollution in the Penobscot River that took place while HoltraChem Manufacturing operated on its banks from 1967 to 2000. The cleanup work would include removing contaminated sediment from the river, capping some contaminated sediments with clean sediments, other beneficial environmental projects, and long-term monitoring, according to the settlement.