I am writing this in response to the articles I have read on the Kimberly-Clark site cleanup.
I was employed at Scott Paper Co / Kimberly Clark from 1969 to 2004 as an electrician and saw what I believe was major pollution violation. In the 1970s, when General Hospital, now Providence, on Colby campus was expanding, Scott Paper closed its waterfront chip plants. (I have a photo of this.)
Scott Paper was operating a new chip plant at Riverside and needed an area to store chips at the main plant site. The log pond site was chosen for this task. Debris and demolition material from the hospital was dumped into the log pond as well as any construction debris from other area construction sites. I witnessed barrels from the mill being rolled into the pond as well as any type of junk not needed.
I personally heard upper managers say they did not care what went into the pond, “just fill it up as soon as possible” for storage of chips. I saw pipes covered in white material, possibly asbestos, along with bricks and concrete also concrete and wood piling were dumped there until the pond was full. Then dredge material from the river was pumped over the pond site until all the debris was covered.
I do not know how you could drive piling into this area for new construction without hitting this debris mass. Normally to fill an area like this, dredging material from the river was the only material used.
I do remember management telling us at a plant meeting to clean up the site and dump anything that was not needed into the pond. I cannot prove anything; I only know what I saw and heard. Someone in government needs to look into this incident.
Brad Hovik
Marysville
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