Penobscot River

The pieces are coming together for a project to try and rid Penobscot River water of its worst mercury contamination. Pollution has forced the state to urge consumers to limit their intake of fish taken from the river, which is a particular concern to the Wabanaki people.

The 2022 agreement also requires Mallinckrodt US LLC, the former owner of the closed HoltraChem facility, to pay $20 million for various projects, including land conservation, a recreational boat launch facility in Orrington, and a fishway at the Frankfort Dam.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources says nearly 1,500 salmon have returned to dams in Orono and Milford along the Penobscot River this year, and about 150 have been counted at two dams along the Kennebec.

The four groups say they've obtained data showing the dam's owner remains in violation of the Endangered Species Act

The Maine People's Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council first sued Mallinckrodt US LLC, the former owner of the now-closed HoltraChem plant in Orrington, back in 2000.

The city of Bangor has chosen a Wabanaki artist to create a piece of public art to cover up an exhaust pipe that’s part of the recently completed 3.8 million-gallon sewage overflow tank project on the waterfront.

If finalized, the settlement would force Mallinckrodt to provide at least $187 million for clean-up efforts on the Penobscot River — and bring the decades-long legal battle over mercury pollution to an end.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined the Penobscot Indian Nation's appeal in its fight with Maine over ownership and regulation of the tribe’s namesake river.

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.

The court case pits the tribe against the state of Maine and upstream business interests over the rights to regulate water quality and fishing in the river.