Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Former mill passes inspection

By Scott Monroe smonroe@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

WINSLOW -- More than a decade after closing, the former Kimberly-Clark paper mill has been given what amounts to a clean bill of health by state regulators.

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CLEAN BILL: The former Kimberly- Clark mill in Winslow as seen from the Waterville side of the Kennebec River. State testing has not revealed any hazardous waste.

Staff photo by David Leaming

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Now called the Kennebec River Development Park, the sprawling facility off Benton Avenue, on the shores of the Kennebec River, is owned by Marden's Surplus & Salvage store and is used mainly for storage and small manufacturing operations.

Officials with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection conducted testing this summer at two sites on the property and found no traces of hazardous waste, according to Heather Jackson of the DEP's Bureau of Remediation and Hazardous Waste.

Technically, the facility has received a "no further action" designation by state officials, meaning no more in-depth waste-testing is needed, Jackson said.

"We did soil testing and took water samples (from the river), and they came back clean," Jackson said.

According to town records, the facility has a property value of $5,811,500 and its annual taxes total $90,078.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. closed the paper mill in 1998, putting about 400 people out of work. According to a published report at the time, the mill's closing involved moving an estimated $28.5 million in taxable equipment from the vacant 108-year-old paper mill, and with it about $500,000 in Winslow taxes.

Marden's purchased the facility and approximately 92 acres of land about a decade ago as a storage area for its supplies and began leasing space to other companies.

The facility encompasses more than 2 million square feet, most of which Marden's leases out to other companies such as manufacturing giant Huhtamaki of Waterville and Fairfield, according to Marden's general manager, Paul LePage. He said the facility was deemed "clean" when Marden's first bought it, and the company has conducted periodic testing since then.

There was an extensive cleanup effort when the mill closed, Jackson said, noting that the facility had an outdoor hazardous waste storage area.

But the mill facility, along with more than 50 other sites in Maine, fell under the purview of a state program regulating facilities with "interim" licenses to treat, store and dispose of hazardous waste. The state Department of Environmental Protection has been "chipping away" at inspecting these sites over the years, with the goal of having addressed them all by the year 2020, Jackson said.

There are still about 10 areas of the facility that are locked and restricted for use because they are known to contain polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the concrete floor, Jackson said.

"There are warning signs on the doors and every year they submit a report showing the deed restrictions are being met," Jackson said.

This summer, state officials searched for what is called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which are chemicals that are emitted as gases from solid or liquid waste and can have adverse health effects.

In examining the cleanup effort after the mill closed, Jackson said, she ordered further testing of soil around a concrete slab where waste had been stored as well as samples from the Kennebec River to analyze the area's groundwater for signs of waste contamination.

"All samples came back as non-detectable," Jackson said.

Even so, Jackson's department is accepting public comment on the "corrective action" designation it has given the paper mill, encouraging "anyone -- maybe someone who used to work there -- who knows something or thinks we should look at something" to come forward. The deadline to comment is Sept. 13, Jackson said.

LePage, mayor of Waterville and also the Republican candidate for governor in the November election, said the facility has been a "wonderful" location, becoming the biggest distribution center for Marden's and enabling hundreds of people to work there every day.

"At one time it was full and now there's some space left; we've had some inquiries," LePage said. "There's certainly some manufacturing potential there if we could find manufacturers."

Scott Monroe -- 861-9239

smonroe@centralmaine.com