CORPORATE WATCH

Follow the mercury

By Sam Pfeifle

What happens when a chemical treatment company goes under? Bad things. Take the case of Orrington’s Holtra-Chem, site of 20-person protest Monday, March 19. It seems when you’re a chemical company, and you file for bankruptcy, you lose interest in your 81-ton deposit of mercury.

The slightly good news is that this mercury is being removed from Maine to a company called Bethlehem Apparatus in Hellerton, PA, according to Jim Freemen, protester and member of the Native Forest Network, an international organization with national offices in Burlington, VT, and Missoula, MT. The bad news is the Bethlehem Apparatus is in the habit of recycling the mercury and shipping it off to India, where standards for used mercury disposal are less than environmentally ideal.

“They put it back in the industry,” says Freeman, “and some of [Bethlehem’s] mercury went to a thermometer factory in India. We have pictures of used mercury being dumped there.” Freeman and his ilk feel that this passing of the toxic buck is a form of environmental racism, and simply unacceptable. “People are getting poisoned overseas,” Freeman reiterates.

Hence, the protest, which featured a sign reading “Lock it up. Stop the cycle of toxins.” The protesters are calling for the state to perform two actions: first, to seize the mercury, second, to retire it permanently. Until the DEP takes these actions, the Native Forest Network plans to monitor the situation for the time when Bethlehem comes to get their mercury.

“We’re going to block that truck,” vows Freeman.