A pilot project depositing about 9,400 tons of sand in the lower Penobscot River to test its effectiveness in covering mercury contamination is likely to begin in mid-August.
Visitors to Orrington’s waterfront Picnic Park on River Road may see two barges working to spray sand over about 6.3 acres of intertidal flats in the cove, creating a cap 4-6 inches thick.
The project is a court-ordered step, years in the making, toward addressing industrial mercury contamination in the estuary that has had wide-reaching negative effects throughout the food chain and on human uses of the waterway. If successful, the method will likely be used to cap an additional 124 acres of intertidal flats.
