I have been watching with interest the debates about mercury contamination in the Penobscot River from the former Chlor-Alkali plant in Orrington. I am by no means an expert on mercury contamination in rivers; however, I do have experience in environmental cleanups.

It has been my observation that “environmental cleanup” means picking the problem up at one place and moving it to another. The public needs to be aware that whatever is removed from the river will be dumped somewhere else. If people are more comfortable with the bottom of the Penobscot River, along with whatever mercury it may contain, piled high in a landfill beside an interstate where they can see it, then that is what should happen.

But it just may be that the least harmful place for it is exactly where it is now, buried in the sediment at the bottom of the river.

Steve Whitcomb

Newburgh