The former Great Works Dam site between Old Town and Bradley, Maine on the Penobscot River. (Penobscot River Restoration Trust)
More than a dozen projects have been given the green light to start efforts to address long standing mercury contamination in the Penobscot River Estuary.
These projects, chosen by the court-appointed Trustee, will be funded with settlement money paid by the former owners of an Orrington chemical plant that from roughly 1967 to 2000 released mercury into the water.
That settlement was reached in 2022 and requires Mallinckrodt, formerly Holtrachem, to pay at least $187 million to restore the river after it was sued by Maine People’s Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2000.
Of that settlement, $20 million was set aside for these projects intended to benefit the public and environment. Other funds are earmarked for targeted removal of contaminated sediment, monitoring and remediation.
“For decades, our communities have suffered from extensive mercury contamination in the Penobscot River,” said Jesse Graham, co-director of Maine People’s Alliance, adding that the funding is a “major step toward righting this longtime wrong.”
Some of the projects will improve recreational and emergency boating access on both sides of the Penobscot River and on Verona Island, according to a news release from Maine People’s Alliance Tuesday. Others will further the work already underway to bolster the river’s fish populations by improving passage throughout the watershed.
The Penobscot Nation will also receive funding to improve water quality management and protect its members from mercury and other toxins in fish and wild foods.
“The projects will go a long way toward restoring the Penobscot, so people can go back to fishing, eating lobster, and enjoying this river that is so fundamental to the lives of people who live in this part of Maine,” Graham said.
Other recipients include Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Ducks Unlimited, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, Penobscot Nation Department of Natural Resources and the towns of Frankfort, Penobscot and Orrington.
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