Maine DEP sues Mallinckrodt over failures to clean up contaminated Orrington site

The Department of Environmental Protection has filed a lawsuit against Mallinckrodt US LLC, accusing the company of failing to clean up mercury contamination at its site in Orrington. 

The department filed the complaint in Penobscot Superior Court Tuesday, and in court records the department said the company has stopped “meaningful work” at the site despite department orders and notices of violations. 

Jesse Graham is the co-director of the Maine People’s Alliance — which, independent from the state enforcement actions, sued Mallinckrodt over the contamination in federal court in 2000. 

“We have for a long time been calling for the thorough cleanup of that site, and we have definitely been disappointed that Mallinckrodt has not cleaned it up to the standards that the Maine DEP has set,” Graham said. “We fully support the Maine DEP continuing to pressure them and whatever legal tactics they need to do to compel them to finish and do a thorough cleanup of all the pollution that Mallinckrodt has left on the site.”

Considered the most contaminated site in Maine, the property is the former HoltraChem chloralkali manufacturing facility. Located adjacent to the Penobscot River, the facility operated from 1967 through 2000, and manufactured caustic soda, chlorine bleach and pesticides. 

In court documents, the department said Mallinckrodt has complained about the difficulties and high costs of cleaning up the site. But, the department said, “this is no excuse for Mallinckrodt’s ongoing failure to adhere to the cleanup standards and other requirements of the orders.”

The department is asking the court for civil penalties, and to order Mallinckrodt to comply with all department orders and submit a plan to remove all soil and solid materials from the site. 

Attempts to reach someone who could speak on behalf of Mallinckrodt were unsuccessful.

The DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency first began pursuing clean up at the site in the mid-1980s, including negotiations with the company in 2002. But after failing to reach an agreement, in 2008 the department issued a unilateral cleanup order for the site. 

But Mallinckrodt appealed that order, first to the Board of Environmental Protection, and then in state courts. Ultimately, the state supreme court upheld the department’s order in 2014. 

The department issued notices of violations to Mallinckrodt in May and October of 2025, over the ongoing issues, but said the company still failed to address the shortcomings of their proposed cleanup plans. 

There is also the federal court case filed by the Maine People’s Alliance, which is separate from the state proceedings involving the department. 

In 2022, Mallinckrodt settled the federal case, and agreed to pay at least $187 million to address mercury pollution in the Penobscot River. 

Graham said some of that agreed-up work is underway now, as Mallinckrodt adds sand to several coves along the river with high levels of mercury, a process known as “capping.”