Paper mill: No river harm done

By Susan Young, Of the NEWS Staff 

LINCOLN — The federal government does not have any evidence that the Lincoln Pulp and Paper mill has harmed the environment, the company said Friday. And, a notice of claim filed by the U.S. Department of Justice Wednesday in federal bankruptcy court was simply a legal maneuver, not an indication that the company has done any damage to the Penobscot River, the mill’s parent company Eastern Pulp & Paper said in a statement.

Eastern Pulp & Paper, which owns mills in Lincoln and Brewer, declared bankruptcy in December.

"We are confident, based on the information provided to us, that we are not harming the Penobscot River or the Penobscot Nation … or anyone in the vicinity of the river or the mill," Doug Walsh, executive vice president of operations, said in an interview.

The U.S. Department of Justice Wednesday filed a notice of claim on behalf of the Penobscot Nation as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. The claim seeks up to $60 million for the "recovery of damages suffered by the Penobscot Indian Nation for the loss of its sustenance fishing right and cultural use due to the contamination of the waters and sediments of the Penobscot River … caused by the discharges of dioxin and/or other hazardous substances into the Penobscot River by … Lincoln Pulp and Paper."

The claim is not a lawsuit, but merely reserves the federal government’s place on the list of parties that may seek money should the company not emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The U.S. government seeks between $400,000 and $60 million for future costs associated with the plant.

"The wide cost range underscores the speculative nature of this matter," said George Marcus, an attorney representing the company.

Officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were unaware Friday of the contents of the 12-page claim. It is possible the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a branch of the Department of the Interior, asked that the claim be filed and did not include other agencies in discussions about what it should include, a source speculated

Calls to the Department of Justice were not returned Friday.

Upon hearing of the filing this week, the governor of the Penobscot Nation said it bolsters his tribe’s case against three other paper companies that are seeking tribal documents about water quality. Gov. Barry Dana said the fact the Justice Department filed a claim on behalf of the Penobscot Nation shows that the state’s Indians have a "special" relationship with the federal government and that the tribes are not to be treated like municipalities in most instances as the Maine Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The Penobscots have long alleged that the Lincoln mill has discharged toxic chemicals that have rendered fish and plants in the Penobscot River inedible.

According to Eastern Paper, two previous studies commissioned by the Penobscot Nation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded there was no link between dioxin and any Penobscot Nation health problems. John Banks, the natural resources director for the Penobscot Nation, said Friday he had lots of information about wastewater discharges from the Lincoln mill, but he would not share them because of on-going litigation over water quality issues.

In the case decided by the Maine Supreme Court earlier this week, the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes contend they do not need to turn over documents relating to water quality to three paper companies because they are sovereign entities, and not subject to Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. But the state’s highest court ruled that the tribes must turn over correspondence between them and state and federal government entities. Records of tribal council meetings, as internal documents, do not need to be turned over. The court asked an Androscoggin County Superior Court judge to decide what to do with documents that do not fall into either of these two categories.

The tribes said they are considering to appeal the Maine ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Asked what he could say about the Lincoln Pulp and Paper situation, Banks replied: "Our fish are loaded with dioxin."

In 1999, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, on behalf of the Penobscot Nation, petitioned the EPA to investigate possible contamination of the river by the mill. More than 100 groundwater, soil and sediment samples were taken from the mill site and river in November 1999 as part of a study to determine whether the facility qualified for inclusion on the federal Superfund list. That study is ongoing, but the EPA has completed its analysis of the samples. Although some low levels of contamination were found, they were not inconsistent with what one would expect to see at an industrial property, Matthew Audet, the EPA’s site assessment manager for Maine, said Friday.

The highest level of dioxin found in the sediment was 40 parts per trillion. Although there is no safe standard for this chemical, residential soil and sediment must be cleaned up to a level of 1,000 parts per trillion, Audet said. These samples were not from the Penobscot River, but from a wetland in the middle of the 300-acre facility.

The highest level of dioxin found in the river sediment was 0.66 parts per trillion, "a low concentration," Audet said.

Another analysis of a larger portion of the river, begun by the U.S. Geological Service last spring, has yet to be completed. When he has that information, possibly by the end of July, Audet said he would complete his evaluation of whether the Lincoln mill is eligible for inclusion on the Superfund list. The mill could be found to be eligible, but never actually included on the list, Audet said.

His agency evaluates many facilities because citizens, community groups, state agencies and the facilities themselves ask for studies.

EPA’s evaluation does not mean that the government thinks the company will shut down any time soon, Audet said. Nor does it mean the government expects it will have to undertake clean up at the site.

The company has come a long way since 1990, when it was fined $1 million by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, still the largest penalty the agency has levied against any entity, said Brooke Barnes, the deputy DEP commissioner.

"They have made vast improvements," he said Friday.

The Lincoln mill cleaned up under pressure from the Penobscot Nation, state and federal governments and others, but it reached nondetectable dioxin levels at its bleach plant faster than other paper mills, Barnes said.

Despite improvements, the state’s largest environmental group believes Lincoln Pulp and Paper still needs to do more to completely eliminate dioxin discharges.

"We know fish downstream from Lincoln Pulp and Paper are higher [in dioxin] than fish upstream. We know we still have fish consumption advisories downstream from Lincoln. We know Lincoln still uses a technology that creates dioxin," said Nick Bennett, a staff scientist for the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

In 1999, Lincoln Pulp and Paper switched to a bleaching technology that it says "assures the complete elimination of dioxin from the mill’s discharge."

Bennett said this is not true because the chlorine dioxide bleaching process results in some dioxin emissions, albeit much lower than before.

Go to: Maine Fish Consumption Advisory

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