Water Resources Board spoke up about the Cease and Desist Order
for Freshwater Tissue Co. "...the Samoa Pulp Mill (Mill) has a long
history of violations stemming from the facilities inability to meet
applicable effluent limitations due to its lack of secondary treatment.
Since being formed in July of 2006, OE has been involved in two administrative civil liability actions against the prior owners of the Samoa Pulp Mill, Evergreen Pulp Inc. (Evergreen). Those efforts resulted in the Regional Water Board imposing over $900,000 in liability against Evergreen....To date, the Regional Water Board has not been able to collect any portion of the liability imposed against Evergreen. In addition, prior owners of the Mill also became insolvent when faced with bringing the facility into compliance."
"It is not clear from the Order that Freshwater has provided the
Regional Water Board with adequate assurances that it will be able to finance the costs of the necessary improvements and still have a viable business."
"It is probable that at some point Freshwater may violate some of the compliance dates and seek an amendment to those dates and it would be helpful to have an explanation as to why these dates are
reasonable4 and attainable at the time the Order is adopted."
The letter points to places where the language in the Cease and Desist
Order needs to be clarified. Basically the Cease and Desist Order is an enforcement nightmare. "Lastly, this Order will require continued
diligence and involvement from the Regional Water Board and
dedication of a significant amount of staff time and resources to
monitor Freshwater's compliance with the Order. The potential impact
that this dedication of limited resources will have on other Regional
Water Board priorities should be considered."