"It gets me mad what they're putting in that water," says Laird, who says he has found mud and water in Paper Mill Creek's basin that don't smell like anything you would find in nature. "I fed my kids that fish."
Mark Graham
"You wouldn't find Opie fishing by that stream," says one environmentalist of Paper Mill Creek, which carries coffee-colored wastewater from the Lufkin mill to Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
Mark Graham
Doughnut-shop owner Dian Avriett rallied opposition on behalf of the lake.
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In June, after almost a year of study, the EPA overturned the state's decision and issued a "findings of violation and order for compliance" against the mill.
Myron Hess, a lawyer with the National Wildlife Federation's Texas chapter, says the decision was a scientific one. "Basically, the fish population had the numbers and diversity to support our position." But at the mill, officials say politics played a role. "We lost on political issues," Hughes says. Adds Price, "I've worked for a lot of years on regulatory issues, and I think the EPA is pretty consistently reluctant to do things that are publicly controversial. It's their nature, and I don't fault them for that. They will do many things to try to avoid it. It's the nature of the process."
That was apparently the case here. A copy of the agency's legal order lists a number of violations by the mill, including discharge of water found to be "dark in color (almost black)." But rather than impose fines, the EPA negotiated a settlement and ordered Abitibi to begin work immediately on a treatment plant and bring it on line by June 2003. In the meantime, the mill was allowed to continue operating under a temporary permit.
The mill also agreed to pay $1 million for a variety of environmental projects in Lufkin, including a wetlands park, improvements to septic systems and a variety of studies on the fish in Sam Rayburn. Gregg Cooke, the EPA regional administrator, called the outcome a "win-win."
The Lufkin environmentalists' side of the hyphen was perhaps the most sweet. They threw a big barbecue by the lake and even invited people from the mill.
"It was definitely a win," Avriett crows. "EPA went against something the TNRCC had said, when normally they go the same way. We made waves. We made big waves."
Her ally Parten says there still is a lot of study and work to be done to restore the fish population in Sam Rayburn. But the preservation of the lake and river's status as a high-quality fishery was a major first step. "We poked a lot of holes in what the mill was saying, some little, some big," he says. "Basically, we kicked their ass."
Erin Rogers, who coordinates the efforts of Texas' local Sierra Club chapters with the group's Austin office, says the Lufkin battle was big enough to get noticed beyond Texas. "People know about this all over the country," she says. "They're amazed at what they did."
In Texas, she says, it's common that local business interests, fearing economic loss, control local opinion in fights like this. But Lufkin was an extreme case. "The mill dominates so many of the civic organizations, the school board, the newspaper, this was worse than many for our side," she says. "It looked like the far end of hopelessness."
On a recent Tuesday night, about 50 people from Lufkin's recharged environmental movement met at Avriett's cafe, where a green club flag hanging outside signaled the meeting was on.
The main topic of the night was mercury, which is found in fish in Sam Rayburn and four other East Texas lakes in high enough quantities that the Texas Department of Health issued a fish consumption advisory in 1995. Although some suspect industrial air or groundwater pollution, its source is unknown.
Dr. Bill Shelton, a Lufkin oncologist and member of the club, told the group how mercury has been proven to harm the brain and nervous system of adults and children, with young children and developing fetuses particularly at risk. "We have enough of this stuff in the water [in East Texas] to keep special ed teachers in business for years," he says.
Talk turned to the general lack of knowledge about the risks and the absence of a single warning on the banks and boat ramps at Rayburn. "We have a fish market here that has a big sign out front saying, 'All fish locally caught,'" Shelton says. "Nobody knows."
Then, in what might have been the first shot in a new, multiyear struggle, Avriett informed the group that the mill has applied for a new air-quality permit, and there are plenty of issues she and the Austin office are concerned about. "I've already applied for a public hearing," she says. "We're gonna take this on."
