Paper Mill Completes Tacoma Cleanup

A $4 million landmark cleanup effort by a Tacoma paper mill is officially complete, a federal judge said in a ruling issued this week.

The project - headed by the U.S. government, Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co. and Champion International Corp. - was aimed at eradicating 60 years’ worth of environmental damage to the Tacoma Tideflats and was signed off by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour.

The two companies allegedly contributed to Commencement Bay’s pollution problem and worked with the federal biologists for eight years restoring fish and bird habitat destroyed by decades of contamination.

Champion, based in Stamford, Conn., is the paper mill’s former owner. Simpson bought the mill from Champion in 1986.

The settlement is landmark because it runs contrary to the normal court fights by which many companies have responded to cleanup requirements under the Superfund law.

“This agreement is significant because the companies, government and citizens put environmental restoration first,” said Terry Garcia, a lawyer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The project to clean up St. Paul Waterway and Middle Waterway was completed last year. It took another year for all the participants in the project to complete the paperwork for federal court approval. xxxx