Corrective actions

The Board of Environmental Protection is expected to consider Dec. 17 an agreement between the state and HoltraChem Manufacturing, the state’s largest generator of mercury-contaminated waste. Though the deal is both far reaching and expensive for the company, a key question for board members is whether it will lead to a culture change at the Orrington business.

This is important because no agreement can take into account every detail of a business’s operation. The state will rely on the latest owners of the chlorine and caustic soda plant to apply the highest standards of safety for its workers and the public on issues that have yet to arise.

In addition to a total fine of $736,000, HoltraChem would spend approximately $1.5 million for monitoring, prevention and engineering studies under the proposal. Some of the provisions outlined in the agreement would have the company install a new water-treatment plant and a collection system for groundwater. It would pay for an engineer to establish a safety and maintenance program and would have the company test neighboring drinking-water wells.

The proposal is the result of lengthy inspection and negotiation by the Department of Environmental Protection, which called in some of the company’s licenses after a series of violations were found. These included spills of corrosive caustic soda and mercury into the Penobscot River. Improperly handled, these compounds are deadly.

One way the BEP could consider whether a change in attitude had occured at HoltraChem is to examine a press release issued hours after the company and DEP came to an agreement on the fines and corrective actions. In the release, HoltraChem President Bruce Davis described the fine as “excessive,” the problems raised by the state as largely “paperwork and technical violations” and blamed environmental concerns on “the early years of the plant’s operations, before HoltraChem owned it… .”

This is discouraging for a couple of reasons. While it is certainly true that HoltraChem inherited more problems than it created, its hands are not entirely clean: In August 1995, the company spilled 65,000 gallons of mercury laden waste into the Penobscot. Earlier this year, between 30,000 and 270,000 gallons of brine containing mercury leaked into the ground over the course of three weeks to two months.

More to the point, the public is less concerned with who is at fault precisely than with having current shortcomings corrected and sending a clear message that such problems should not be allowed to occur again. When BEP members meet, they should ensure that message has been received.