MAINE PUBLIC • August 17, 2021
A decades-long legal battle over cleaning up mercury pollution in the Penobscot River will come closer to a resolution following a series of hearings in October over a proposed settlement that could lead to a $267 million cleanup. Three days of hearings are scheduled for U.S. District Court in Bangor in early October over a settlement agreement that would have the onetime owner of a shuttered chemical plant in Orrington spend between $187 million and $267 million to clean up mercury contamination in the Penobscot River. In March, the Maine People’s Alliance and Natural Resources Defense Council arrived at the settlement with Mallinckrodt US LLC, which owned the former HoltraChem chemical plant between 1967 and 1982. A judge has to approve the settlement before it can take effect.