Superfund site in Brooksville will be dredged next week

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 19, 2025

Dredging work is expected to begin on a Superfund site in Brooksville next week, one of just two major projects that remain to be completed after years of cleanup on a section of the former Callahan metal mine. The site had been mined since at least the 1880s and, for a few years in the late 1960s and 70s, was an open-pit mine extracting primarily copper and zinc. The mine site had levels of polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, which are toxins that can cause cancer, among other environmental issues. In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency designated it a Superfund site, which gave the federal agency the ability to fund and organize cleanup efforts. When those efforts are eventually completed, it will mark the end of a wide-ranging remediation process that has spanned decades and millions of dollars.