Maine Again Sues Feds for Superfund Cleanup Costs

By Marina Villeneuve, The Associated Press
BANGOR, Maine - Maine is again seeking money from the federal government to clean up decades-old hazardous pollution at oil storage facilities.
 
In an Aug. 9 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills estimates Maine faces $10 million in total cleanup costs for pollution at former Portland-Bangor Waste Oil Co. sites in Casco and Ellsworth.
 
The lawsuit seeks $413,433 and claims the Department of Defense disposed at the sites, which stored waste in tanks that leaked contaminants like lead into the ground.
 
Five years ago, Maine reached a $14 million settlement with non-federal actors who disposed at the company's Plymouth site. In May, the state won an $110,655 settlement from the federal government after arguing the agency neglected cleanup of a South Berwick naval shipyard disposal site.