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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Epa Takes Middle Road On Paper Mill Pollution

Compiled From Wire Services

After years of study, the Environmental Protection Agency has recommended new rules that will require paper mills to greatly reduce their emissions of dioxins and other toxic chemicals into the water and air, at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion.

The agency rejected even tighter and more expensive standards, finding that the added pollution reductions would not be worth the extra expense, Clinton administration officials said.

The decision by EPA Administrator Carol Browner, which is expected to be sent to the White House for final review this week, is is already being denounced by environmental groups that for years have been seeking more stringent measures than the ones the agency chose.

The critics say the agency’s approach, by encouraging paper mills to install equipment that reduces most, but not all, of its pollution, will only delay the time when the industry’s wastewaters become essentially pollution-free.

In the meantime, they say, American Indian tribes, poor people and others who feed on fish caught in streams below paper mills will continue to be exposed to unsafe levels of chemicals that are implicated in a variety of illnesses and developmental problems.