290 



1 EDWARD J. GRUBLE 



2 by pulp mills as a toxic, oxygen depleting pollutant 



3 affecting the marine resources of North Puget Sound. 



4 It is no longer a question of whether or 



5 not sulfite waste liquor is a harmful pollutant, but 



6 rather the question is when will this pollution be sig- 



7 nificantly reduced in order to protect the marine re- 

 g sources of this State and other legitimate water users 

 9 who are suffering damage. 



We have serious reservations, based on past 



10 



jj experience and history, as to the State's ability to 



12 

 13 



effectively control and abate pulp mill pollution under 

 either existing regulations or proposed water quality 

 j4 standards now being reviewed by the Federal Government. 



15 During the 12 years since inception of the 



16 permit system in 1955, permits issued by the State Pollu- 



17 tion Control Commission have progressively permitted 



18 individual pulp mills to escalate the volume of their 



19 permissible waste discharge rather than curtail this dis- 



20 charge. 



21 A case in point is one of the mills under 



22 scrutiny today --the Bellinghara pulp and paper mill complex 



23 of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation which started out in 



24 1926 as a 22-ton-per-day pulp producer and is today manu- 

 facturing approximately 527 tons per day. 



25 



