HoltraChem folds its tent Past owner to assume oversight

loading...

ORRINGTON – It long has been expected that the HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. would run out of money and cease to exist as a corporation. That came Friday, leaving state regulators scrambling to complete an agreement as to who will keep watch over the plant and the 80 tons of mercury stored there.

Officials from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection obtained a verbal agreement Friday afternoon from a past owner of the plant, Mallinckrodt Inc., that it will assume oversight of the now-shuttered facility. However, an official memorandum of understanding had yet to be signed, although state officials expect that to happen within days.

The St. Louis-based pharmaceutical and chemical company had expressed some concern about taking responsibility for the mercury remaining at the plant. A chemical wholesale company had agreed to purchase the mercury but plans to ship it to Pennsylvania and India were stymied when environmentalists protested what they termed “toxic trade.” So the mercury, which was used to convert salt water into chlorine and other chemicals, remains in Orrington.

HoltraChem, which closed its plants in Maine and North Carolina last fall, has been reported to be running short of money and on the verge of collapse.

Although no papers to dissolve the company had been filed with the state Attorney General’s Office on Friday, state and federal regulators said the company is through.

“It was made very clear to me by four lawyers and [our] staff, that today is the last day,” a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mark Merchant, said Friday.

The Orrington plant manager said HoltraChem would not pay any employees after Friday.

“As of today, I am terminated by HoltraChem,” said plant manager Dave Baillargeon, who worked at the facility for 30 years.

Money has been set aside to cover utility costs but there is no arrangement to pay the handful of employees needed to ensure that the site is secure and that a state-mandated wastewater treatment system remains operational, Baillargeon said.

He said the employees met Thursday and agreed to continue working through the weekend and into next week with the hope that the company hired to manage and begin cleaning up the site, Earth Tech, will pay them. Both Earth Tech and Mallinckrodt are owned by Tyco International Ltd. Co. The Bermuda-based corporation, which has diversified business interests including fire control systems, electronics and health care supplies, is in the process of purchasing financial lending giant CIT Group.

Scott Whittier of the Maine DEP said those employees will be paid under the terms of the agreement between the state and Mallinckrodt.

“The lights will stay on and the necessary employees will be retained,” he said.

“And paid,” he added.

In addition to the memo, the state is working with HoltraChem to set up a trust fund whereby any proceeds from the sale of equipment from the plant or the mercury would be used to pay for cleanup activities.

The memorandum of understanding, which runs through May 31, stipulates that Mallinckrodt will be responsible for continued operation of the treatment plant that removes mercury and other contaminants from the facility’s groundwater, for maintaining the security of the site, and for keeping a watch over the mercury, Whittier said. Although HoltraChem will remain the owner of record of the mercury, under the memorandum Mallinckrodt is required to move about 30 tons of the metal from a homemade storage tank to an official container, he said.

Even if Mallinckrodt signs the memo, it does not compel the company to pay for cleanup activities at the site, Whittier said, although he added that the state has talked with the company about its expectations for the cleanup process.

“Mallinckrodt will not be surprised by the state’s expectation that they should pay more money [for cleanup],” he said.

That does not quell the fears of environmental groups that feel the cleanup plans for the facility and its surroundings should be nailed down now.

“If Mallinckrodt doesn’t commit 100 percent to the cleanup now, it is probably time to start the Superfund process,” said Michael Belliveau, toxins project director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of five groups that have formed the Penobscot Alliance for Mercury Elimination.

Under the Superfund program, the EPA cleans up a site and then seeks parties to pay for it later. In this case, it would go after Mallinckrodt because it is the only owner of the plant that has not filed for bankruptcy or dissolved as a corporation.

Belliveau said the federal Superfund process is good because it allows public involvement in cleanup decisions.

Whittier of the DEP said it is not accurate to say that Mallinckrodt is not already involved in cleanup activities. He said the company already has incurred expenses for minor activities already done by Earth Tech.

The cleanup process has a lot of steps, the first of which is to finish a study of the site to determine what kind of chemical contamination exists there, Whittier said. Mallinckrodt is participating in and funding this study.

After the level of contamination at the facility has been determined, the DEP and EPA must determine how clean they want the site to become and what methods will be used to remove contamination. The public will be involved in that process, he said.

The first step is to determine the cleanup standards. The EPA and DEP have scheduled a public meeting for 6:30 p.m. April 12 at the Center Drive School in Orrington to discuss cleanup goals. There will be formal presentations and personnel from the agencies, as well as Mallinckrodt officials, available to answer questions.

A second meeting is slated for May to talk about how the goals should be achieved.

Ernest Waterman of the EPA said the HoltraChem plant should not become a Superfund site because that is not the fastest way to clean up the Orrington site. He said it would take at least a year just to get the plant designated as a Superfund site. It won’t take that long to get Mallinckrodt on board to begin the cleanup, Waterman said.

Meanwhile, the mercury nobody wants remains a problem. A 20-ton shipment to India was recalled in January because the government there refused to accept it after activists on both continents decried what they called the dumping of hazardous waste on less-developed countries. Earlier this week, the world’s largest mercury-recycling company, Bethlehem Apparatus Co. in Pennsylvania, refused to take the remaining 80 tons of mercury at HoltraChem because of the potential for protests.

Whittier said Mallinckrodt was concerned about the mercury because “it’s something else that has to be done that takes time and money.”

For the time being, the mercury is safely stored. But, he said, “it will soon come to a point where the mercury will hinder cleanup efforts.”

He and environmentalists agree a federal program for the retirement of mercury should be developed. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has proposed legislation requiring federal agencies to develop such a plan.

While such a plan is developed, the state or federal government should buy the mercury and have a private company, like Bethlehem Apparatus, store the mercury, NRCM’s Belliveau said.