A long-awaited trial over mercury contamination in the southern end of Maine's second-largest river system got underway today in U.S. District Court in Bangor. A now defunct, Orrington-based chemical company dumped mercury into the Penobscot River years ago. The lawsuit, filed by the Maine People's Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, asks the federal court to order Mallinckrodt US LLC to clean up contamination around the mouth of Penobscot Bay and along the river.
This fight has been going on a long time. Lyndon Johnson was president when the plant, originally built by International Minerals and Chemicals, began producing chlorine gas and sodium hydroxide for the paper industry.
The mercury contamination began during the Nixon years. And Bill Clinton was wrapping up his second term in office when a Maine progressive group joined with one of the nation's leading environmental organizations to try to force a clean-up of the contamination.
"I know, I've been working on it for 15 years," said Jesse Graham, who runs the Maine People's Alliance. Graham spoke with reporters outside the federal building in Bangor. "Exciting day that were finally at this stage where the research has all been done and we've got to make decisions about how to clean it up."
And that research, conducted in stages under orders of the federal court, shows that there's plenty of cleaning up to do. Holtra-Chem, which used to operate the plant, dumped between 6 and 12 metric tons of mercury in the Penobscot River, according to recent studies.
"It's pretty widespread," Graham said. "A lot of it has settled into marshy areas, like Mendall Marsh, definitely affecting the wildlife - lobster, crab, food that people consume."
Last month, the state finalized a two-year ban on lobster and crab fishing in the area where the river flows into Penobscot Bay. And elevated mercury levels, traced to the dumping, have been found as far away as Vinalhaven.
An attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council spent the first day of the non-jury trial leading U.S. District Judge John Woodcock through a history of the research and what it shows.
The lawyer wouldn't comment for this story. But the NRDC and the Maine People's Alliance are asking Judge Woodcock to rule that the pollution poses an immient threat to human health and the environment, and to order Mallinckrodt US LLC to spend millions on ongoing testing and clean-up efforts.
"Mallinckrodt does not believe large-scale remediation is necessary," said Lisa Clemence, head of corporate communications for Covidien, a global health care firm that owns Mallinckrodt. "The company has developed a proposal for certain limited studies and a proposal for monitoring some wildlife species, including, but not limited to, certain fish and birds."
Clemence says it's premature to assume that the court is going to rule against the company, despite what seems like convincing evidence of contamination and potential harm to public health. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.