Kidder Point Spills & Responses 1983 to 1998

*A good reference map  1993 Delta Chemical site map large jpeg 

Delta Chemicals & General Alum's spills  reported to DEP October 14, 1983 to March 18, 2020      Maine DEP reports on each of the above spills  Each entry brief but info-rich

Consultants  Reports

1965
Northern Chemical site at Kidder Point examined in 1965 by consultants re a Superfund court case in Massachusetts   For ease of reference I have made a separate link to the report's FIGURES pages. 

Summary: Chemical company  Grace Brothers was part owner with Northern Chemical  in mid 1960s operations at Kidder Point.  GB was being sued in federal court Superfund case   re their main operation in Massachusetts and had to submit this  report  describing in detail* the chemical operations  taking place on  their Maine property on Kidder Point  and the local climate , demography and culture  active there in the late 1960s.  That case was later dramatized in the book  "A Civil Action".  which  itself was dramatized in a movie of the same name featuring John Travolta 

* description of waste management is nearly nonexistent in this report 

1984

* Delta Chemicals' 1984 acid spill.  Plus appendices

Consultant E.C. Jordan was hired to (1) assess hydrology of groundwater flow, (2) assess the extent of the sulfuric acid plume in the soil and groundwater and (3) see how much has gone offsite via groundwater.

* June 6, 1984 spill, Drawn Map of pH sediment sampling results

1990

 * 9/14/90 Testing of 'Alum Reactor Waste'  by Maine Environmental Laboratory

 

1991

* 1991 test 'Volatile Organics' Analysis of Alum Sludge by Resource Analysts,

1993

* 1993 Delta Chemical site review & landfill history/  by Sevee & Maher Engineers, May 19, 1993    1993 Delta Chemical sitemap large 

1998

* 1998 site assessment by Delta Chemical 3/17/98 pt1 by Alec Horth, GAC Chemical

* 1998 site assessment 3/17/98 pt2 (loads slowly) 

* 1998 April 26 intertidal site walk assessment by  DMR at Huber's request

  

* 2002 

* 2004  Google earth closeup of GAC site with wooden structures standing.

2002 https://penbay.org/gac/gac_clf_settlement_100802.pdf

Bay History 1995 Huber Diary February 6, 1995 GAC Chemical spoil banks

FEBRUARY 6 1995. Wrote, faxed press release about Cargoport marine
impacts to BDN, PPH, RJ, WI, CFN.

Also sent fax to Lee Few,Virginia, concerning a proposal to produce aqueous 

ammonia at the General Alum plant. According to Rep Journalist, 

DEP (Bangor) can license but not regulate its production. It is used in sewage treatment
plants, she said. Get her info.

=========================================

MARCH 7, 1995 Called John Barlow about  Maine Maritime Academy grant request. He says the main thing is money to support a monitoring project in Pen Bay. There is a group that wants to something similar on Frenchman Bay. MMA has got gear and manpower.

Their need is $ for supplies fuel, and summer pay, as students and faculty are gone then.  Physical monitoring whats going on with the water, nutrients and chemistry and a biomonitoring, etc..

MARCH 8, 1995 Call Val Whittier DEP Bangor to check on progress of the investigation of the General Alum unlicensed discharge. Busy signal on phone all day. Daffy report.

============================

March 30 1995 Went fishing on the Playboy. Early on, Charlie's suit developed a leak, and the day's fishing was scrubbed.

3/31/95 First day fishing as sole sternman. Weather foggy and cool.

Dress warm. Write letter to Longley. Make up a newsletter for distribution

** Jack Merrill, Maine Lobsterman's assn his address POB 994,Northeast Harbor, ME 04662, 207 276©5265. He's interested in going down to DC to talk Magnuson Act revisions. the end of next month. 

==========================================

1996

February 2, 1996 Called MDEP Bangor.  ISSUE  General Alum spoil banks along shore 
Bangor DEP water bureau:  Valerie Whittier, Clarissa Trasko, Jim Fohmes(?)
941-4570. Land Bureau

Question to Val Whittier DEP:
Is General Alum, or its predeccessor Delta Chemical, under any sort of consent 

decree concerning its aluminum spoils on the shore of Long Cove and Stockton Harbor?

Reply Call from Valerie Whitter DEP  She said it was grandfathered in under regs  pre-existing modern environmental laws.

Karen Knuuti said she would fax some material on the bauxite mud.  Doing the regulatory history of the spoil banks.  The spoils are mostly bauxite mud, she says plus some carbon sludge some alum mud. Landfill begun before deposition laws, so it has grandfathered . Consolidated muck. pits and capped.

February 5, 1996  Called left msg for Knuuti. She called back; will send requested info by fax today.  Received faxed MDEP material:

=========================================

Chlorine concerns as stated by Peter Washburn 2/7/96

Call back from Peter Washburn that the projected residual chlorine usually mg/Liter are identical measurement to mgL©1.   If have five mg and two liters divide by two and gives

A different criteria for marine water quality discharge is below regulatory thresholds. Marine acute criteria is 13 microgram/liter marine chronic criteria 007.5 micrograms  so Point 013 mg/l they'l say upon dilution

Typically they'll be given a Zone of Initial Dilution (ZID) and a mixing zone. Maine has no mixing zone policy

EPA applies this if don't have to meet any outfall criteria, a very small area, very fast mixing,  turbulent. 

Within the mixing zone, can exceed chronic criteria but not the acute criteria. Fish can move through the zone and leave. Argued about mixing zones in Bucksport

In the mixing zone can exceed chronic criteria, but outside it you can't. They'll say, we gotta mixing zone, can show you a model that we won't exceed 0.13 and outside they will meet criteria..

Important they do these mix zone analysis not too huge. Most. 

Interested in why they need the temp increase ask how big is the mixing zone, if too big fish can get___

PUSH FOR They can dechlorinate at the end of the pipe. Pretty standard stuff. A See Maine Yankee.  

Raise concerns about how to meet the marine criteria, the adequacy of the dilution analysis; how big is the mixing zone and should dechlorinate this stuff, its SOP.

Demonstrate the adequate dilution analysis. 

End Chlorine concerns as stated by Peter Washburn 2/7/96

==================================================================

BAYWATCH LOG APRIL 1996

Make a Road sign a high quality one, saying Sears Island 1 mile.

APRIL 6, 1996. Visited the General Alum site and picked up samples of aluminum spoils from near the shore of ssockton harbor adjacent to the plant. Picked up sample of carbon sludge surfacing (via frost heave?) outside the silt fences around the toxic waste landfill site behind the plant. Call Karen Knuuti after contacting BDN and Rep Jal? And maybe Peter Taber? Have samples, photographs, research papers and a press release.


General overview of 4/6/96 site investigation.
Followed the railroad track from the Sears Island Road toward the property and then dropped onto the Stockton Harbor shoreline and followed it around the bayward side of the plant.

Then went inland along its northern border, circled the managed toxic waste field and then back to the shore and back to the railroad track to the SearsIsland road. Picked up several hours later.

Transcript from tape notes made during the 4/8/96 site visit:

"On the railroad tracks toward General Alum . There has been a fire on either side of the tracks extending out several feet in the grasses, [Later saw this extended for a distance on the tracks on the other side of the Sears Island Road.]  Still smell the charcoal.

Make for the shore. Walking along the shoreline. The salt grasses look yellowed overwintered. Could not see any copepods or other small or larger living animals underneath the matted seagrass: too early in the year?

Plenty of light foam scum and red algae  and dark green short curly kelp. At regular intervals of about one foot, small black patches (3-6 inches in diameter) of what looked like chopped up tea leaves from inside a teabag were washing up against the shore . Very gentle waves lapping at the 
shoreline. Gravel and stone and sand; short dead grasses. A lot of brick and other debris.

The upper shore is alum tailings fill, iron rebar and other debris poking out of it, covered with thin
layer of soil and grass, bright yellow chunks of sulfur slag here and there on the shore. Collected a sample.

The fill is definitely the whitish colored material. Dug out a sample from 6 inches deep on the way out from the site visit.)

Persistent foam on the shore as I near the old pumphouse dock jutting out from the shore on the point. There is a small stream on the Sears Island Road side of the point. Mussel shells and stones in the next stream have an orange coating. Got a sample of an orange mussel shell pair and a stone halfway between the first point and the pumphouse.

Another stream, draining out of the industrial area just before the pumphouse, has no discoloration.
Beyond the pumphouse is the area that had the white discharge covered stones first noted last year. Some stones still slightly whitened, white glaze or film.

Toward the next point, another small stream, some brown persistent foam coming out of the
stream. Didn't get a foam sample. It appears to be the source of the foam seen closer to the SI Road.
[COULD BE THE ONE THAT DRAINS THE TOXIC WASTE SITE.

===============================================

GENERAL ALUM SITE VISIT continued PG 2 OF 3

Foam thickest on the shore here on the point of the shore by the mouth of the stream on the SI side of the stream mouth. Going around the next point, see 50 yards ahead the RR tracks again close to the water.

A good sized stream coming down. Elvers?
Approach the stream, it comes from under the railroad bed through a square cement culvert approximately 3 feet by three feet, an 8 inch drop down to the bay at this tide, If lowered the
culvert, could get alewives running through. Maybe they can at high tide.

There's foam but not very substantial. Green scum on the floors of the culvert. Cross the tracks and look at other side of the culvert. A good sized stream. Snowmelt or perennial? a lot of green mossy scum on the culvert.

Get on tracks heading back toward the General Alum Plant. A second stream visible coming down and going under through a culvert. Coming down from the area of the toxic waste site. Go uphill toward the toxic waste site, through the screen of woods.

See two iron pipes with padlocked lids on them protruding from the ground. They are in the middle of a 50 square foot black marshy area. A metal tag on one of them says "Well # MW 204B, Date Installed: 09©26©91; total depth 19.9 TPVC; screened interval 5.5 © 17.5 BG "Sevvy and Meyer engineers, telephone 829©5016. For water samples leacheate."

Head up through trees towards waste site. Black silt fence visible. Beaver cut saplings from last year.

Silt fence has a 1" black pipe running along beside it, . Outside the fence, black sludge matter appears to be frost heaved up to the surface in numerous spots every couple feet.

View of the waste site. Filled over flat area, 5 white J shaped plastic pipes across the middle of the field. Field is about the size of two football fields? Covered with light layer of straw under it is sandy gravel.

Around the perimeter, a ten foot wide band of coarse mulch,  then the fill of sand and stones,  then a
partially silted-in ditch, then the silt fence, then the black eruptions. Silt fence in pretty good shape  ...has a few weak spots, its been recently re-straw-baled.

Walk counterclockwise around the waste field. from the side  furthest from the plant there is a beaver dammed pond with two lodges, the source of at least one of the streams.

Hoses protruding from the field hang down onto the beaver pond shore. Big white hose comes out of the pile, like a clothes dryer air vent hose, accordion-style black perforated plastic with a white cloth skin over it.

See dog footprints. Some broken silt fence on the beaver pond side or filled over. Blackish duck flies away then more ....a total of 13 ducks.

A marsh at the far end of this side. Deer sign. Another channel's  beaver lodges. A large heron, gray with orange beak takes off.

=======================================

GENERAL ALUM SITE VISIT PG 3 OF 3

Going around the back side of the waste site. silt fences: most in good shape. Some in need of fixing.

See above the beaver pond two artifical ponds. Both of them have aged asphalt shores. No signs of life. Pipes carry water from one pond to another, several pipes go down into the beaver pond. with old rusty valves.

2nd pond like the first: some drowned grasses, no other apparent life, kidney shaped pond. A third pond closer to the factory; marsh behind it and an old road leading to the site no longer in use.  Upper 3rd pond drains to a 4th pond behind the facility.

Complete circuit of the waste site. On side closest to the plant another drainage goes down toward the plant, crosses the RR tracks after passing through silt fences. 

Collected black sludge sample in plastic grocery bag on way back.  Go down toward RR tracks, two more sampling pipes visible, padlocked rusty no label or sign on them. Vague scuzziness in the ditch between the site and the RR tracks.

Follow deer track back to the harbor. Tide is coming in; can only walk part of the way on
the beach. Passing the pumphouse, a 12" wide stream has a gray white film on the sand gravel bottom.

When disturbed, a little plume went out down the stream, leaving the sand and gravel clean looking, so it is a film.

The crumbling wooden quonset hut  is still being used for storage of squarish white plastic containers (3' by 3' ) marked "waste". A wooden chimney is still very warm. A dead gauge on the ruined quonset. A cool pipe covered with styrofoam.

Got some alum waste samples from the spoil bank below the quonset on the side facing the causeway. Then back onto the Sears Island road."

End of visit.

==========================================

April 7, 1996


To Rudy Engholm Northern Wing/ Lynda CLancy

Fr: Ron Huber, Coastal Waters Project

RE: Toxic waste leaking from General Alum\Delta Chemical licensed
dump site in Stockton Springs. FYI

On Saturday, April 6, I did a perimeter walk of General Alum\Delta Chemical's managed, consolidated toxic waste dump on the land behind the General Alum facility. It is about the size of a football field.

On the side closest to the Bay, the toxic black waste from their carbon sludge ponds that had been dug up and reburied in the consolidated dump a year or more ago is now erupting from the soil at regular intervals, outside the site's  runoff control perimeter.

General Alum is the site that you photographed the white plume emanating a year or so ago.
The eruption site is on the top of a forested slope that drains down to the railroad track and ultimately into Stockton Harbor.

There are at least 4 streams flowing from the industrial property site into Stockton Harbor.

I suspect the one with a small but constant amount of brownish persistent foam at the shore below
the plant is the stream that this waste is draining into.

Most of the site is fairly well maintained. There are only a few areas where silt fences are broken or overfilled with silt. Straw bales have been recently emplaced to control runoff from breaks in the fencing.

Much of the waste field drains in a ditch inside the perimeter and through large hoses in several places coming out of the field into a sizeable beaver pond (four lodges) that angles around the side and back of the waste field, as well as several connected manmade ponds. 13 ducks and one heron flew up from the pond/marsh. Deer sign.

One concern is that the black sludge erupting through the surface outside the perimeter at regular intervals may pose a serious environmental or health risk.

It looks like a fairly recent phenomenon, and appears to be frost-heaved up from underground. I
do not know of its exact composition, but the fact that it was buried in a toxic waste site is some cause for concern.

I brought back about a pound of it, along with a jarful of the granular aluminum tailings from the spoil site in front of the plant.

We plan to alert the appropriate authorities and organizations in the coming days to make sure that appropriate action as necessary is taken. Thought you'd like to know. If you have any suggestions, please contact me.

RH

=====================================


4/7/96   Call to Ted Schettler, Harvard: He guessed that General
Alum's carbon sludge might be petroleum waste byproduct from
incinerators boilers.
(617)536©7033

Northern Wing Fax # 729©9678

Moving slowly getting stuff done send me a neat document synopsis
of reproductive health effects and the irony of it back in the 
days when we were in the dioxin hearings.

On a radio program about our stolen futures on local npr
station, he took a shot at "scientific imperialism": Arrogant
sobs that believe that when they talk about science should inform
the debate but only scientists understand the data, so accept his
statements 

Ted's doing a lot of environmental work some clinical practice

He documented all the science and collab with Mass PIRG with
specific TRI and TUR Toxic Use Reduction data. What's coming in
the front door the whole picture of lead merc a whole varieties.

Can be replicated same format several states TUR: have Exists
It was a law hacked out by biz industry and environmentalists
hammered out. Tox Use Reduction Institute at U MAs Lowell

=========================================

April 8, 1996 * Call to John Hurst about the black sludge.

He says  A couple of years ago the company made ammonia out of bunker C fuel
oil. Carbon is one of the waste byproducts

Bunker C has some interesting heavy metals in it. Power plant can
reuse the waste Bunker C 

When they started the plant , Bunker C would come into 
their holding pond. The carbon came from their experiment making
ammonia but the plant didn't make the ammonia they wanted so
ended making it and now they get it from a tanker offshore.

Don Harrelman (late) about ammonia is   .........
The sulfuric acid by heating the sulfur..........

Contact DEP and let them take care of it. Then they have their own sample. 

A legal sample can analyze it.

* Call to the Maine Maritime Academy. Barlow will be at the
meeting on Pen Bay health as a panelist. not really set up to
analyze heavy metals and organic chemicals analysis
really set up good for nutrient levels and oceanographic data.

I sent him a letter about other funding possibilities a letter
about...and updates?

Rather then spend a lot ot time onthe past lets move forward
Only concern is if we can set up fund and design
Want to present results impartial.

Biggest problem with fed funding. Need continual source of
funding to pay for the boat.  Something that could be done

Need some time and money. 

April 16, 1996 Alec Horth, VP engineering  "Its not erupting material 

as waste as the early 60's had a carbon to waste carbon material there have 

been some minor where...

end of note

=========================================

Maine Dredge Team meeting outline notes and presentation April 7, 2025

 Maine Dredge Team Meeting  April 2025 agenda/outline

April 7, 2025

(See Army Corps of Engineers  April 2025 presentation (pdf)   (Searsport Harbor  is on page 12)

·        Projects completed 2024-2025

o   Isles of Shoals breakwater repairs – New Hampshire/Maine

§  Repair damage to 3 breakwaters

§  Construction began in June 2023, wrapped in November 2024

§  11,000 tons of new armor stone

§  Final cost around $10 million

o   Kennebec River (USN support-maintenance dredging)

§  Hoping to dredge every 2 years

§  40-60k cy material by hopper dredge; disposal at alternative Jack Knife Ledge Disposal Area

§  Completed in January 2025

§  No take of endangered species occurred

§  USN will be looking to expand the dredging footprint for the 2028 dredge adjacent to Bath Iron Works – still within the navigation channel

·        Sand suitable for placement in-river

·        Carlton Bridge to Doubling Point

·        USN coordinating NEPA and state reviews

o   May need additional consultation and/or permit updates to account for changes in footprint, increased dredging frequency, and use of alternate disposal area

o   Josias River, Ogunquit maintenance dredging

§  Mechanically dredged 10,300 cy of material; disposal at Isles of Shoals North Disposal Site

§  Completed in March

§  Had to leave some areas untouched due to presence of hard material (ledge)

§  Final survey on ehydro website

§  Last dredged 1994

·        Scheduled for award in 2025

o   Narraguagus River Maintenance Dredging

§  2024 contract solicitation cancelled – only one bidder, over budget

§  Re-advertised March 17, 2025 hoping to open bid April 17, 2025

§  Looking to do full FMP 150k cy of material; disposal at Douglas Isle Disposal Site

o   Bar Harbor breakwater repairs

§  2 repair areas between Bald Porcupine Island and Porcupine Dry Ledge and beyond Dry Ledge

§  WQC/CZM submitted for review in March

§  Goal to advertise contract in September 2025

§  Historical munitions testing in the area – USACE Baltimore District conducted a determination for probability of UXOs and found there would be low probability

o   Section 111 Shore Damage Mitigation Project – Camp Ellis, Saco

§  Phase I – 750 linear foot stone spur jetty and beach fill (~73k CY)

§  Phase 2 – sand nourishment

§  Authorizations under RHA CAP Section 111 at $12.5 million, WRDA 2007 to $27 million, WRDA 2022 to $45 million

§  WQC/CZM app for Phase I to be submitted spring 2025

§  Potential to use sand from Scarborough Beach depending on timing of projects – dredging not to impede navigability; looked for offshore borrow sources; potentially trucking material from upland quarry

 

 ·        Scheduled for 2026+

o   Isle au Haut Thoroughfare

§  In early planning phase

§  Mechanical dredging ~  2,400 cy – mostly sand, gravel, cobble – suitable for open water disposal; Flake Island disposal site under consideration

§  Current cost estimate ~$3M

§  Working with fishermen to ensure material is placed beneficially for habitat and fishing grounds

§  WQC and CZM applications anticipa
ted in summer 2025

§  2026 construction

o   Searsport Harbor maintenance dredging

§  Mechanical dredging of ~30k cy of material; not suitable for open water – potential to go in CAD cell – 2 sites under investigation; preferred CAD site outside channel near Mack Point

·        Legacy contamination with mercury from Holtrachem detected

§  WQC and CZM applications anticipated in summer 2025

o   Union River Maintenance Dredging           

§  Dredged in 2006-07 – encountered very fine wood pulp coming from upstream mills; material had been disposed at Tupper Ledge

·        Wood pulp does not want to stay in one place

§  Looking to re-align channel entrance – limits the amount of future material to be dredged; anchorage still needs to be dredged – material not suitable for aquatic disposal; identifying potential upland sites

§  USACE conducting due diligence; coordinating with USCG

§  Looking to reach decision point for path forward spring 2025

§  **Question for the group: has anyone seen successful aquatic disposal of wood pulp?

o   Georges River

§  Working to identify potential beneficial use placement sites, open water placement sites

§  ~24-25k cy material to go to 10 feet; town wants to go to 16 feet – increases dredge material to ~80k cy

§  Undertaking draft EA – late summer/early fall for public review and WQC/CZM for project to be conducted fall 2026 (assuming funding from congress)

§  Has gone through suitability determination to 10 feet – mostly silty with some fine grain sands; needs analysis to 16 feet – scheduled for this sampling season

·        Identified potential need in marshes close to Georges River – not sure how to get the material there

·        Any upland beneficial use needs to consider DEP criteria which may be slightly different from USACE

·     Marine Construction Industry Day on May 5 virtual event from 9am-12pm

o   Share with marine construction industry

o   Email nae-pn-nav@usace.army.mil to register and use the subject line “Marine Industry Day”

Portland CAD cell project

·        First CAD cell in the state of Maine – constructed January-March 2025

·        4 acre hole

·        Material from 3 projects dredged this season placed in the CAD cell – Maine State Pier, Ocean Gateway, Turner’s Island (interim cap)

·        ~40 total projects in Portland Harbor to use cell

·        Monitoring to determine if there should be changes to CAD cell management plan

enEnd