PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 13, 2024
Callahan in Brooksville and Kerramerican in Blue Hill are industrial scale metallic mineral mines operated for a few years and closed half a century ago. Hundreds of smaller failed metal mines in Maine closed in the 19th century. Maine’s Legislature continues to repeatedly respond with ineffective mining regulations. The state is responsible for 10%of the partial remediation costs at the Callahan EPA Superfund site, and is paying those taxpayer-funded costs at the rate of $740,000 per year. The Kerramerican tailings pond leachate is contaminating Carlton Stream to a level of toxic heavy metals 30 times greater than the maximum allowable. Who, other than the public, will pay to remediate this site? Maine’s legislature has not embraced the need for a harm-prevention regulatory structure and has instead relied on the ever-changing, industry-driven, ineffective harm-punishment regulatory structure. Maine’s DEP has no scientific experts in mining on staff and limited funds to hire any as consultants. ~ Ralph Chapman, applied physics research scientist, educator and former state legislator, Bucksport