For immediate release

May 21, 1999

Contact: Jean Colston 537-6485 W or 537-4458 H
                 North Carolinians Acting for the Environment (NC Act)

State and Federal Agencies Criticize Wisconsin Tissue Environmental Assessment

Gaston-  North Carolinians Acting for the Environment has learned that state and federal agencies are critical of Wisconsin Tissue's Environmental Assessment submitted to the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NC DENR) on April 26, 1999. NC Act President Jean Colston said that, "Our stated concerns are supported by State and Federal regulators in their comments. Many unanswered questions remain."

Documents  submitted to NC DENR May 14, 1999 by US EPA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NC DENR's Divisions of Water Quality (DWQ) and  Parks and Recreation (DPR), North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC)  and North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries show that Wisconsin Tissue has done a poor job assessing the environmental impact of the proposed project. Sportsmen and environmentalists have long maintained that the effects of a degraded Roanoke River will have far reaching impacts. NC DPR points out that "The river and floodplain ecosystems of the Roanoke Basin below Lake Gaston Dam have been identified as some of the largest and highest quality remaining in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain."

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC) comments state that ,  "Wisconsin Tissue proposes to discharge its liquid effluent at a temperature of 85 degrees F to (the) Roanoke River. A preliminary review of scientific literature suggests that eggs of striped bass would be killed at this temperature after very short exposure times (striped bass spawning generally occurs at water temperatures of 62-64 degrees F)." The WRC goes on to say, "Regardless of their origin, dioxins, furans, PCBs and metals will likely be discharged to (the) Roanoke River in Wisconsin Tissue's liquid effluent.", and that, "Wisconsin Tissue goes to great lengths to demonstrate the minute quantities of these compounds which might occur, if at all, but uses very little verbiage to explain that there are no safe exposure limits at all for most of these compounds." "We are extremely concerned that the many subsistence fishermen in the Weldon and Halifax area may be exposed to toxic materials as a result of ingesting contaminated fish."

US EPA called Wisconsin Tissue's application "incomplete until additional information is provided regarding information on Menasha mill's bleach plant effluent concentrations of dioxin and the various bleaching sequences used". Additionally EPA states that in industry supplied data in response to a 1990 EPA questionnaire, "dioxin can be expected to be produced at secondary fiber mills using sodium hypochlorite". EPA goes on to say,

"The Roanoke River has a TMDL (total daily maximum loading) for dioxin; therefore the company should choose an alternative bleaching agent that does not contribute to the formation of dioxin."

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