PENOBSCOT COUNTY,
MAINE, LAWYER
EPA awards portion of $6.1M asbestos cleanup grant to the town of Orono, Maine

June 4, 2009 – The town of Orono in Maine’s asbestos-plagued Penobscot County is one of a dozen sites in the state that will receive part of a $6.1-million EPA asbestos cleanup grant to remove asbestos and other pollutants, our mesothelioma lawyer reports.

The EPA awarded Orono a $200,000 brownfield cleanup grant to remove asbestos and other toxins from a three-acre site where a paper mill once operated. The 130-year-old building on the Webster Mill site is the only example of an unaltered 19th century paper mill still remaining in Maine. The site is one in 15 around the state selected to receive EPA funds.

The cities of Bath, Augusta and Lewiston are also receiving grants, as are the towns of Howland and Windham. (The Bath Iron Works shipyard, like most of Maine's shipyards, used significant amounts of asbestos.) The environmental grants are part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that the Obama Administration signed into law in February.

Penobscot County asbestos lawyer

Penobscot County is the sixth deadliest county in Maine for deaths due to asbestosis and mesothelioma, according to the EWG Action Fund, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based environmental organization, which conducted the first complete study of asbestos-related deaths in the United States.

Some 31 Penobscot County residents died specifically of asbestos exposure between 1979 and 2001, according to the study, which emphasized that the mortality figure may represent only 20 percent of actual fatalities because the government did not begin tracking mesothelioma as a cause of death until 1999.

Asbestos removal is critical to the residents of Penobscot County, as airborne asbestos particles pose a serious health threat. Once inhaled, asbestos particles can become permanently lodged in the lining of the lungs or other organs, and can lead to certain medical conditions, including lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Weitz & Luxenberg – Champion to the working class

The personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg has championed the rights of workers for 25 years, and has won more than a billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients injured by asbestos.

If you have been diagnosed with an occupational asbestos disease and seek a free legal consultation, please notify us through the communication form on this page. We will pursue your claim with vigilance. And because we work on a contingency basis, there is no cost to you at all until we win a settlement or verdict. Contact us today!