109 



Chapter 5: CAUSES OF DECLINE 



ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS 

 IN GRAYS HARBOR AND THE LOWER CHEHALIS RIVER 



Pulp Mill Effluents 



In 1928, Grays Harbor Pulp and Paper Co. (now ITT-Rayonier) began discharging 

 untreated acid waste into the Harbor (GHRPC 1992). The effluent killed 

 alarming numbers of fish, crab, and shrimp (Wendler and Deschamps 1955b) and 

 by 1940 prompted the Washington Water Pollution Control Commission (now WDOE) 

 to investigate. The Commission concluded that mill waste was virtually 

 smothering fish by taking dissolved oxygen out of the water and that the waste 

 would have poisoned the fish had it not smothered them first (Pine and Tracy 

 1971). In 1957, the Weyerhaeuser Company opened the area's second pulp mill 

 in Coamopolis (GHRPC 1992). Their effluent was pumped to the Harbor via a 

 series of ponds and discharge structure in SoufcJi Aberdeen, Like ITT, 

 Weyerhaeuser came under pressure to improve wat' quality (GHRPC 1992). 



The industrial processes, treatment proi d resulting effluent of the 



two mills have been described by Hallinan (19Eai Keif ; 1989a), and Johnson et 

 al. (1990). Work on pollution effects ok salmon has been well summarized by 

 the reviews of WDF ("971), Seiler (1?87. ^S39), and Schroder and Fresh (1992) 

 and much of what is reported here \e based on these works. 



Differential Adult Production 



Seiler (1987) reported that HumptulipB River Chinook production averaged 33.6 

 percent of the Chehalis Basin total over the previous 17 years, although the 

 Humptulips system watershed area is only about 10 percent of the Chehalis 

 Basin total area. Recent wild steelhead run size estimates (QFiD and WDW 

 1991) suggest disproportionately high production from the Humptulips relative 

 to the Chehalis River System, since Humptulips wild steelhead made up 28.0 

 percent of the Basin's wild steelhead runs in the 1984-1990 period. 



Differential S»olt Survival to Adult Catch 



In the early 1970s, a group of Satsop hatchery fall chinook was released into 

 the Humptulips and survived to adult 18 times as well as on-station releases 

 (Fuss et ai. 1981). Several recent studies summarised by Seiler (1989) agree 

 that coho smolts originating in the Chehalis system contribute to the marine 

 catch no more than half as well as smolts coming from the Humptulips system. 

 Seiler (1987) considered steelhead to be affected by poor water quality in the 

 inner Harbor in the same way as coho. 



