Bill will have MDEP dredge applicants follow court-mandated mercury sampling,testing standards

Heads up from a local mercury watcher on the present river bay situation

Legislation

* This fall the federal court in Bangor will hold a trial in the still-pending case brought by the Maine People’s Alliance and NRDC against Mallinckrodt. 

At issue: Determine what remedial measures the court will require Mallinckrodt to undertake in the lower Penobscot River (at the South end of Verona Island) and the upper estuary, as well as Mendall Marsh.

* The court has identified the lower Penobscot River (at thend of Verona Island) the upper estuary and Mendall marsh as where the worst of the mercury contamination from the HoltraChem was found by the Court’s experts during Phases I and II of the Penobscot River Mercury Study (PRMS).

* Complex currents in the lower river and upper estuary have created a mobile sediment pool of mercury contaminated sediment. In this area, we're given to understand, the mercury has never been buried by natural attenuation and apparently never will be buried!