The prospective buyer of Great Northern mills was given more time.

BANGOR (AP) – The deadline to complete the sale of Great Northern Paper Inc. was postponed until May 5 after Monday’s court-ordered deadline was missed because of concerns over who would be responsible to clean up any environmental problems left behind by the previous owner.

Brascan Corp. of Toronto is preparing an amendment to its purchase agreement of Great Northern’s assets that excludes some properties that could pose environmental problems in the future, Jacob Manheimer, a Portland attorney representing Brascan, told the Bangor Daily News.

The company also is preparing a list of past and present environmental hazards to file with the state Department of Environmental Protection, the newspaper reported. In return, DEP has agreed to limit the company’s financial liability for those sites.

“It’s a 100-year-old mill,” Manheimer said. “There are various things up there we’re trying to get our arms around. I don’t think this is any serious impediment to closing. It’s a speed bump.”

The postponement of the closing date is the latest snag in the sale of Great Northern, and represents a setback for mill employees eager to get back to work.

Great Northern mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket have been idle since December, putting more than 1,100 out of work. Brascan, which had hoped to have the East Millinocket mill up and running by mid-May, says the mills will eventually have a work force of 500 to 550.

Brascan, Great Northern and the DEP have held ongoing discussions in recent weeks on how to limit Brascan’s liability for environmental hazards.

DEP Deputy Commissioner Brooke Barnes said Monday that one way Brascan has chosen to protect itself is to exclude at least three properties in the sale.

Those properties include two bark piles, called the “red liquor” lagoon, and two old municipal dumps, one in East Millinocket and the other away from the mills. Great Northern’s previous owners could be liable for any environmental problems that develop on any of those sites, he said.

Barnes said that the list Brascan is preparing is a requirement of the state’s voluntary response action program. Brascan may be asked by DEP to clean up a couple of environmental concerns, but the company would not be responsible if problems arise at any of the sites on the list.

Timetable OK’d

The list, however, wasn’t completed by Monday’s scheduled closing. Neither was a state-required 21-day waiting period for public comment on whether DEP should transfer Great Northern’s permits over to Brascan.

That waiting period is over by Wednesday.

In February, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louis H. Kornreich approved a timetable that set Monday as the date the mills would be sold. If the deadline wasn’t met, interim financing to maintain the properties was to be withdrawn by Great Northern’s primary lender, Boeing Capital Corp.

Kornreich was notified Monday morning that the sale would not be completed by the end of the day.

But it wasn’t until about 5 p.m. that he received a financing plan that would cover the minimum expenses to maintain the mills, plus wages for a skeleton crew of 80 people, up until May 5.

Alex Terras, a Chicago attorney representing Boeing, said the lender “was unhappy” that the mills did not sell as scheduled on Monday, but that the creditor agreed to cover salaries and expenses until Friday.

After that, Brascan will pick up the expenses, which are close to $200,000 a week.

“Basically it’s whatever has to be spent to protect the assets,” Manheimer said. “It’s not in anybody’s interest to close (the mills) down today.”