WA fines defunct pulp mill $2.3 million for violations, inaction

Conditions haven’t improved at the defunct and degrading pulp mill along the Chehalis River, which had once been the keystone for the small city of Cosmopolis.

Really, things have grown worse, so state regulators are turning up the pressure on the mill, Cosmo Specialty Fibers, and its often-absent owner who has been trying to resurrect the business for years.

The mill, about 100 miles southwest of Seattle and on the outskirts of Aberdeen, has been closed since 2022, collecting environmental violations and fines in the years since. On Tuesday, officials with Washington’s Department of Ecology leveled their biggest penalty yet, slapping $2.3 million in fines against the company.

“We need the owner to take this situation seriously and immediately address the threats stemming from a lack of maintenance and oversight,” Bobbak Talebi, director of Ecology’s Southwest Region, said in a release. “These urgent safety issues cannot wait. It’s too dangerous and there’s too much at risk.”

That owner, Richard Bassett, declined to comment Tuesday morning. He’s long had a grand vision for reopening the pulp mill, which would produce a product essential for everyday items like aspirin, phone and computer screens, fabrics and cosmetics.

But since the mill’s closure, the property has languished and rusted, leaking acid and other hazardous substances left behind from when it was operating. At the same time, the city in which the mill was once the largest employer, has struggled to find a way to turn its finances around and reinvent its economy.

The story serves as something of a microcosm for small and rural communities everywhere struggling to survive in a postindustrial America. Cosmopolis, Grays Harbor County, in particular must also contend with heavy contamination the mill left behind and the lingering question of whether the company will ever open its doors again or clean up its mess.

Cosmopolis Mayor Linda Springer said she was surprised and disappointed to hear of the mill’s latest batch of fines. She, and many other city residents, have long hoped that the mill would reopen. For decades it was the biggest source of revenue for the city budget.

Even now, Springer said her administration is eager to work with Bassett to reopen the mill.

But the business is instead moving in the opposite direction, which underscores another point that Springer has been making for years: Cosmopolis can no longer base its financial decisions on the prospect of the mill reopening. Instead, it must seek any and every other way to reinvigorate its local economy.

“I have to operate this city not on the ‘what ifs’ but the reality,” Springer said.

And the reality right now is that the mill has more than 800,000 gallons of corrosive chemicals on the property, Ecology’s release said. Not only are the tanks holding these liquids leaking, but Bassett has been unresponsive to the numerous requests and demands that he clean up the site.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leveled a type of regulatory order against the mill, which hangs over the property like a cloud. Bassett has failed to keep water, electricity and security running at the mill, giving rise to a potential “catastrophic release,” federal officials warned.

The federal order, which gives regulators access to the mill, still stands and there has been no evidence to show that Bassett has improved conditions in recent months.

Bassett, who lives in England, has often fallen off the radar for regulators and local officials as fines add up and conditions at the mill deteriorate. The mill already owed tens of thousands of dollars in dangerous waste violations.

Of the $2.3 million in fines are $677,325 in water quality violations, said Ecology spokesperson Brittny Goodsell. This includes unpaid water permit fees, failure to aerate wastewater holding ponds and failure to address a “long-term, ongoing” chemical spill.

Dangerous waste violations, like leaving waste containers open and failing to clean up a continuing chemical spill, amount to $499,350 in fines, Goodsell said. Bassett failed to report the mill’s greenhouse gas emissions last year and left air quality permit fees unpaid, totaling $423,302 in fines.

Another $687,992.02 came in for cap-and-invest violations, Goodsell said.

Bassett’s company was the only one that failed to turn in its greenhouse gas allowances late last year, which were due for all the state’s top polluters. In December, Bassett chalked that failure up as an oversight and said he was working to square things with the state. But so far he hasn’t.

In the past, all these fines and fees amounted to a relatively small amount of money when compared to the $50 million or $60 million Bassett is trying to raise from investors to resurrect the site. He sees a vast money-making operation at the place, if only he can get it running once more.

But Ecology’s fees amount to another step in the wrong direction for a man struggling to find investors who might be scared off by signs of distress or difficulty.

Bassett has taken pains to keep up appearances. He pressured federal officials not to publish details about hazardous chemicals, leaks and inadequate services at the mill, emails obtained through public information requests show. Despite his protests, regulators still published their press releases.

He also wrote to then-U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, whose district includes the mill, and asked for his help lifting the EPA’s regulatory order. Since then, U.S. Rep. Emily Randall took over the office and the federal order remains in place.

Federal officials did, however, agree to vacate the premises briefly in late 2024 and remove marking tape from parts of the mill when Bassett planned to have prospective investors visit the site, the documents show.

A representative for the EPA declined to comment for this story.

Documents and interviews show that state and federal regulators have repeatedly tried to work with Bassett to make the necessary repairs at the mill, though he has also repeatedly accused them of blocking his progress.

This isn’t the first time Bassett has taken on a mill revival project. He bought a bankrupt mill at Port Alice on Vancouver Island in 2006 and kept it running for a few more years before selling it to a Chinese company. That mill eventually closed and its owners declared bankruptcy, owing $272 million to different creditors and leaving British Columbia on the hook for about $90 million in cleanup costs.