Groups Threaten Suit Over Pollution Permit Activists Say Potlatch’S Discharge Endangers Fish

Three environmental groups have threatened to sue the government for extending a pollution discharge permit for Potlatch Corp.

The groups contend discharge from the Lewiston pulp and paper mill harms endangered runs of Snake River salmon and steelhead, along with endangered bull trout.

“The recovery of salmon cannot wait” while government agencies study the environmental effects of the effluent, said Mark Solomon, executive director of The Lands Council.

Potlatch’s 1992 permit allows it to discharge up to 35 million gallons of treated wastewater a day into the pool behind Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. That effluent can be as warm as 92 degrees before mixing with the cooler river water. It contains limited amounts of dioxins and chlorine compounds.

Salmon and steelhead do poorly in water warmer than 57 degrees, as is often the case behind Snake River dams, said Bob Ries, biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service. What isn’t yet known is how much the Potlatch effluent contributes to the heating of the water, he said.

Potlatch’s permit expired more than a year ago, but was extended by the Environmental Protection Agency while reviews are completed for a new permit, EPA permit writer Carla Fisher said. A draft should be ready for review by the public and government agencies by October, but there’s no telling how long it will take to review those comments and write a final document, she said.

While the permit undoubtedly will include tighter limits on chlorine compounds, “I don’t know what the final permit is going to look like” or whether it will call for lower water temperatures, Fisher said.

The environmental groups filed the required 60-day “notice of intent to sue” on Aug. 5. In addition to the Spokane-based Lands Council, they include the Idaho Conservation League and Idaho Rivers United, and are represented by an attorney from the nonprofit Land and Water Fund for the Rockies.

The Conservation League and an Oregon-based environmental group also challenged Potlatch’s 1992 permit. Then, the issue was the level of dioxins the company was allowed to discharge.

Dioxins are chemical compounds that cause cancer in some laboratory animals and are linked to several human maladies, including reproductive and developmental problems. They are a by-product of the wood pulp bleaching process.

This time, the coalition contends the EPA shouldn’t have extended the permit without first consulting with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The EPA is now consulting with those wildlife agencies and the states of Idaho and Washington on an informal basis, Fisher said. Formal consultations don’t happen until after the draft permit is issued, she said.

The coalition probably won’t file suit if the draft permit is issued by October and is adequate to protect the environment, Solomon said.

Potlatch spokesman Frank Carroll said he doesn’t expect big changes when the new permit is issued, since the existing one was “probably the most stringent permit in the country” at the time it was issued.

“We believe our effluent level … is very good and very protective of the environment,” he said.

Carroll also disputed Solomon’s contention that there are cleaner ways to make paper profitably. The company’s methods are the best available until new techniques are perfected or consumers can be convinced to buy unbleached paper, he said.

The EPA lists Potlatch as Idaho’s second-largest industrial polluter. The company legally releases nearly 13,000 pounds of toxics into the Clearwater River, 600,000 pounds into the air and 448,000 pounds onto land annually.

Those releases are down significantly from the 1980s, when the company spent $150 million modernizing its Lewiston plant.