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Orrington, Maine
Orrington is a town on the Penobscot River estuary in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,812 at the 2020 census.
Orrington was originally part of Condustiegg or Kenduskeag Plantation,[dubious – discuss] which also included the present-day cities of Bangor and Brewer. Orrington was incorporated as a town in 1788 with its major village at Brewer, then called "New Worcester". Bangor incorporated three years later in 1791. Brewer broke away from Orrington in 1812 to form a separate town.[citation needed]
The name "Orrington" reportedly resulted from a spelling mistake. The settlers intended to name it "Orangetown" after Orangetown, Maryland, but it was written on the record-books in distant Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a territory, as "Orrington". "Orring" was a reasonable phonetic rendering of "orange" before the standardization of English spelling.
For much of its town history Orrington was a shipping and ship building community. The Boston & Penobscot Shipbuilding Company yard was on Mill Creek, South Orrington. Ice cut from the Penobscot River was shipped as far away as the British West Indies.
Orrington lies on the estuary of the Penobscot River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 27.33 square miles (70.78 km2), of which 24.99 square miles (64.72 km2) is land and 2.34 square miles (6.06 km2) is water.
While the Bangor area is served by two commercial bus carriers, it does not include service to Orrington. Freight rail service is provided by the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Company and by the Maine Central Railroad Company (operated by the Springfield Terminal Railway (Vermont)). Rail connecting Bucksport to Brewer runs through Orrington along the shore of the Penobscot River with a spur line to the former HoltraChem site. There are intermodal rail facilities in Bangor and in Hermon, Maine both with ready access to Interstate 95 and to Bangor International Airport.
Orrington was home to the HoltraChem plant, which occupied 235 acres alongside the Penobscot River. It produced chlorine and other chemicals for the Maine´s paper and pulp industry. In September 2000, HoltraChem closed its plant in Orrington, terminating 72 employees, at the time the town’s second largest employer, and the town’s largest taxable property. As of 2002, the Penobscot Energy Recovery Corporation (PERC) waste-to-energy incinerator remained the only industrial employer (82 people).
The HoltraChem site itself was heavily contaminated, and cleanup was ordered by and as of 2022 is overseen by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Starting in 1967, HoltraChem had disposed of up to 13 tons of mercury into the river and mercury concentrations in lobsters and crabs have been so high that the Department of Marine Resources ordered a fishery closure.
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Orrington, Maine
Orrington is a town on the Penobscot River estuary in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,812 at the 2020 census.
Orrington was originally part of Condustiegg or Kenduskeag Plantation,[dubious – discuss] which also included the present-day cities of Bangor and Brewer. Orrington was incorporated as a town in 1788 with its major village at Brewer, then called "New Worcester". Bangor incorporated three years later in 1791. Brewer broke away from Orrington in 1812 to form a separate town.[citation needed]
The name "Orrington" reportedly resulted from a spelling mistake. The settlers intended to name it "Orangetown" after Orangetown, Maryland, but it was written on the record-books in distant Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a territory, as "Orrington". "Orring" was a reasonable phonetic rendering of "orange" before the standardization of English spelling.
For much of its town history Orrington was a shipping and ship building community. The Boston & Penobscot Shipbuilding Company yard was on Mill Creek, South Orrington. Ice cut from the Penobscot River was shipped as far away as the British West Indies.
Orrington lies on the estuary of the Penobscot River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 27.33 square miles (70.78 km2), of which 24.99 square miles (64.72 km2) is land and 2.34 square miles (6.06 km2) is water.
While the Bangor area is served by two commercial bus carriers, it does not include service to Orrington. Freight rail service is provided by the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Company and by the Maine Central Railroad Company (operated by the Springfield Terminal Railway (Vermont)). Rail connecting Bucksport to Brewer runs through Orrington along the shore of the Penobscot River with a spur line to the former HoltraChem site. There are intermodal rail facilities in Bangor and in Hermon, Maine both with ready access to Interstate 95 and to Bangor International Airport.
Orrington was home to the HoltraChem plant, which occupied 235 acres alongside the Penobscot River. It produced chlorine and other chemicals for the Maine´s paper and pulp industry. In September 2000, HoltraChem closed its plant in Orrington, terminating 72 employees, at the time the town’s second largest employer, and the town’s largest taxable property. As of 2002, the Penobscot Energy Recovery Corporation (PERC) waste-to-energy incinerator remained the only industrial employer (82 people).
The HoltraChem site itself was heavily contaminated, and cleanup was ordered by and as of 2022 is overseen by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Starting in 1967, HoltraChem had disposed of up to 13 tons of mercury into the river and mercury concentrations in lobsters and crabs have been so high that the Department of Marine Resources ordered a fishery closure.