Penobscot River closed to lobster, crab harvests
State fisheries regulators have issued a two-year closure of nearly seven square miles of the lower Penobscot River after determining that muscle tissue of crabs and lobsters were contaminated with mercury.
Working Waterfront reported regulators believe the mercury came from the shuttered HoltraChem plant upriver in Orrington, which operated from 1967 to 1982. Pat Keliher, commissioner of the state’s Department of Marine Resources, said the closure is a precautionary measure.
The closed area begins at the mouth of the river along a line from Fort Point in Stockton Springs southeasterly to Wilson Point just north of the village of Castine, the paper reported.
Mallinckrodt LLC, which became responsible for the site after HoltraChem went bankrupt in 2001, argued last week before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court over cleanup of the site. The company was ordered by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to dig up and remove contaminants from on-site landfills, a process the company argues has less expensive alternatives.
Officials decided on the closure after receiving results of a court-ordered toxicology study in November. The basis for the closure was analysis of that study by State Toxicologist Andrew Smith, according to a DMR press release.
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