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2/9/10
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Residents decry narrow scope of HoltraChem site cleanup ORRINGTON, Maine — Some residents are upset that selectmen voted unanimously last week to support a quicker rather than extensive cleanup of the former HoltraChem site, leaving tons of contaminated sludge. Those residents are beginning a petition drive to reverse the board’s decision.
“A number of Orrington residents feel like their voice wasn’t heard,” Ryan Tipping-Spitz, Maine People’s Alliance environmental organizer, said Monday.
A successful petition drive would send a message to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, which has the final say in the scope of the cleanup, that the selectmen’s vote was not representative of what residents want, he said.
Orrington Town Manager Paul White said Monday morning that a petition drive would change little.
“Ultimately, that decision is going to lie with the Board of Environmental Protection,” he said. “I don’t believe it would [make any difference], but I’m not an attorney.”
While testifying before the BEP on Feb. 4, the last day of hearings, White said town leaders want to avoid further delays.
“It seems to be plainly understood by everyone involved in this matter that if the commissioner’s order is imposed on Mallinckrodt, there will be further litigation ... that would result in a further delay of three to five years with nothing being done,” White told the panel.
For that reason, the town is supporting a “source removal alternative” proposed by St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt, which operated a chemical factory at the site until 2000. That option would take out 73,200 tons of contaminated soils from the main polluter — Landfill 1 — and other contaminated areas, recap Landfill 2 and leave the other three landfills on-site untouched.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection would like Mallinckrodt to remove 360,000 tons of contaminated soils from the five outdated landfills at the site.
Mallinckrodt’s “source removal alternative” proposal was created by Woodard & Curran of Portland, and “only surfaced after the commission ordered the dig-and-haul remedy,” White said.
Richard Judd, who resides just downriver from the site, said, “The selectmen are obviously hoping that if they give in to Mallinckrodt, the company will finally stop stalling and do something to the site, but they’re being incredibly shortsighted. If we don’t fight for a full cleanup, residents of Orrington will be dealing with these toxic chemicals forever.”
Residents and MPA members testified during a local hearing hosted by BEP at Center Drive School on Jan. 28.
Resident Margaret Parker, who was among those who spoke at the hearing in favor of complete removal of all contaminants, said Monday that town leaders don’t know what residents truly think because they have never been asked.
“They haven’t been canvassed,” she said. “We have not had a vote or been provided any written materials. We really don’t know” what others in town think about the cleanup plans.
The town held a special selectmen’s meeting on Jan. 29, the day after the BEP hearing, to hear from Mallinckrodt and continued the meeting on Feb. 3 to hear from the DEP.
At the second meeting, selectmen voted 5-0 to “support the plan presented on Friday by Woodard & Curran, which appears to have the least amount of risk to public health and [the] environment,” White said. They also directed him to make a presentation to the BEP supporting Mallinckrodt’s plan, he said.
Petitioners would need to collect signatures from 171 registered voters, or 10 percent of those who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial race, to get a veto referendum placed on the next ballot, town clerk Susan Carson said.
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ignorance and ignorants live strong in MAINE. Cause we don't live in the same trailer park we're different.
TRASH!
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It's pathetic that a few wimpy selectmen in one particular town are the only ones allowed by the MBEP to represent public opinion on a vitally important issue that has implications for the entire nation. How about considering how all the people who live downriver from this travesty feel about it? Toxic accumulations of mercury have been recorded all the way to Cape Jellison in Stockton Springs. The only reason this poison plume hasn't been reported one town farther downriver, in Searsport, my hometown, or across the upper bay at Penobscot is because no one has bothered to look. Well, all the remaining people in Orrington who have any sense, people to whom we can all be grateful like Richard Judd and Margaret Parker, it looks like it's all up you to tell your selectmen to grow spines and stand up to Mallinckrodt and demand they fully clean up their mess.
file a major claim on behalf of every resident in orrington, and sue em!!! my kids lived near that dump for years, SUE EM!!! AND SEE WHERE YA GET.
I was under the impression that the site was to be entirely cleaned up. What has changed? This kind of thing goes on way to often, and it does concern everyone, not just the folks in my home town of Orrington. I have been the recipient of some inside information, un validated of course, but it seems that some one has a financial stake in the land there. May be some condos and a marina going up as soon as they get the all clear and go ahead. Well if the people in town don't want to make Mallinckrodt clean up the mess, then perhaps the rest of us will insist on it and start litigation against the town selectmen.
A bit of friendly advice to the people of Orrington: If your elected leaders don't put your interests ahead of those of fat corporations from "away," elect some new ones who do. If I lived in Orrington, I'd be mad as hell at my selectmen. (Personal disclosure: I'm on the board of MPA.)
I remember years ago when I was attending school in Florida an elected official was trying to calm the then (justified) worries about the dangers of plane-spraying Malathion for mosquito control. In a televised PR stunt he DRANK a glass of Malathion to show that it was not harmful.
Perhaps as proof to the towns people the elected officials of Orrington should all re-route their wells to the water table under the Mallinckrodt's abandon toxic laden site - I'm sure the decisions around full or partial clean-up would change drastically then.
A Big Corp Trying To Escape Their Responsibilities ~ Who Would of Thunk Dat
Something Stinks In Orrington ~ And it Ain`t The Citizens
Very Interesting About The Condo Thing ~
I hope BDN looks into Who Mite Want A Piece of That Action
So now the apparent improper disposal of mercury laden sludge in pits needs to be dealt with and the choices are either the best (less cost) for the company that now owns the problem site or what the environmental regulators feel is correct per the law. The best way to get the Selectmen to take ownership of the situation is to name the pits (holes in ground) full of mercury laden waste after them. That's right. Name each and every pit full of waste that the Selectmen want to remain on site as a toxic legacy to how not to handle mercury waste after each of the Selectmen that voted to support that waste remaining in those pits. Did they ever hear of Love Canal, New York. I bet if you attach their names to the toxic pits, they will understand what the future will bring for their children and families. We all know how well engineered those holes in the ground are. Just cover up the problem and trust us, we have our best financial interests at heart. Just like the rocks that the frost brings up every year, those buried wastes will come to haunt Orrington in the future and Mallinckrodt will be long gone.
Woodard & Curran has earned their pay check from Mallinckrodt with this shell game. The town of Orrington has been wronged by their representatives. This is a State of Maine problem since the strong Penobscot currants have deliver contaminates into Penobscot Bay. Where was Augusta and who's hand was in their pocket?