Four decades. That’s far too long for those who live near the Penobscot River to continue suffering from industrial pollution. We know the victims, from pregnant women and lobstermen to birds laden with unconscionable levels of mercury — a neurotoxin especially unhealthy for the fragile nervous systems of fetuses and young children. We know the polluter’s name: Mallinckrodt. And it’s time for them to pay to fix their mercury mess.
Closing arguments in a federal lawsuit brought by the Maine People’s Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council are scheduled to be heard on Wednesday. Think back to another June 17 event: the Watergate burglary in 1972. That third-rate burglary, as the White House then called it, seems like a lifetime ago. The pollution of the Penobscot, a first-order offense against the natural world, has been going on that long.
Now, after a remedy trial that began a year ago, we are at the doorstep of what we hope will be justice for the Penobscot and those who live on it and love it. Here’s what we want: an order requiring an immediate, intensive search for active remedies to restore the river, to finally eliminate the decades-long harm to human health and the environment that Mallinckrodt’s mercury has caused.
The fouling of the Penobscot actually goes back to the late 1960s, to a plant in Orrington that produced chlorine bleach for paper mills. In the period of roughly 1967 to 2000, this plant dumped from six to 12 metric tons of mercury into the river. To put that in perspective: a single teaspoon of mercury can contaminate a railroad car full of fish.
In 2002, two years after we filed a lawsuit to stop the pollution, a federal judge held Mallinckrodt responsible for elevated mercury levels downriver from the plant — levels that endanger the ecosystem and human health.
That finding by now-retired U.S. District Court Judge Gene Carter was a major landmark in our legal struggle. The judge found that Mallinckrodt had violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the federal law that empowers private citizens like us to bring actions like this. And he ordered Mallinckrodt to pay for an independent study to figure out whether remediation was necessary and feasible. If it was, Judge Carter indicated, he would order a cleanup.
The court-appointed scientists who conducted the study found significant evidence of profound damage, and they recommended cleaning up the river in order to reduce the danger from the mercury that remains there.
Today, the mercury pollution from this dirty plant continues to plague the environment and public health. Penobscot sediments have 10 times more mercury than other parts of the river unaffected by Mallinckrodt’s discharges. Songbirds in the river’s Mendall Marsh have blood mercury levels higher than any ever recorded in the United States. Eels, crabs, and black ducks all have mercury levels that exceed the Maine standard for safe human consumption. In his 2002 opinion, Judge Carter wrote: “A pregnant woman could not eat a single Penobscot fish in the measured range without endangering fetal health.”
The mercury also builds up in lobsters. In the court-ordered study, 90 percent of the lobsters in one reach of the river exceeded the Maine threshold for safety. Early last year, based on this finding, the state halted the harvesting of lobster and crabs in a seven-square-mile area near where the river meets Penobscot Bay. And the court’s independent scientists found that mercury contamination may be spreading toward the heart of the Penobscot lobster and crab fisheries.
Yet, the behavior of Mallinckrodt has been predictable and standard: spending a lot of money on lawyers and consultants to avoid spending money on remediation. Against that corporate financial strength and ironclad resolve, we bring our own steely determination to achieve justice. On our side, we have the undisputed facts: This company dumped tons of poison into the river and that pollution is still there.
At the closing arguments, we will make our final case for holding Mallinckrodt responsible for its toxic legacy. We’ll be speaking on behalf of our combined more than 35,000 members in the state who want their river back, and the tens of thousands of people living in the river’s 8,600-square-mile drainage basin. We’ll be the voice of the damaged wildlife that cannot speak. And, in a real way, we’ll be standing up for other regions in America that face pollution problems, present and future. If the court makes a strong finding that forces Mallinckrodt to do the right thing for the Penobscot, that will send a powerful message to other careless industrial giants: Pollution, it turns out, really does not pay.
Jesse Graham is the executive director of the Maine People’s Alliance. Peter Lehner is the executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.