FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   ENR
TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1995                                  DOJ (202) 616-0189
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888
                                                         EPA (206) 553-1506
                                                         USA (907) 271-5071


          KETCHIKAN PULP CO. TO PAY $3 MILLION IN CIVIL PENALTIES
              AND UP TO $6 MILLION TO HELP RESTORE WARD COVE

        Settlement Follows $3 Million Criminal Fine Two Weeks Ago

     WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- Two weeks after agreeing to millions of
dollars in criminal fines for its dumping activities, the Ketchikan
Pulp Company ("KPC") will pay $3.1 million more in civil penalties
and spend up to $6 million cleaning up the damage it caused to
Alaska's Ward Cove, the Justice Department and Environmental
Protection Agency announced today.  The settlement, lodged in a
consent decree in the Federal District Court in Anchorage, resolves
Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act claims pending since 1992.

     In a separate criminal plea agreement filed March 6 involving
Clean Water Act violations, KPC agreed to pay $3 million in fines
for 14 counts of dumping harmful sludge and wastewater into
Alaska's Ward Cove over a three-year period, including intentional
dumping that lasted five straight days.  More than half of the
criminal penalty will be suspended if KPC spends at least
$1,750,000 to complete an ambitious pollution prevention program.

     "Indifference and illegal waste disposal threaten Alaska's
ecosystem," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for
Environment and Natural Resources.  "Ketchikan is paying the price
for fouling the environment.  At the same time, Ketchikan's
commitments to improve operations are positive steps to fix the
problems it created."

     "Today's events mark and end to a major enforcement effort by
EPA, and a beginning for the rehabilitation of Wards Cove," said
Chuck Clarke, EPA's Northwest Regional Administrator. 

     KPC manufactures wood pulp and other logging products.  Its
mill uses chemicals to manufacture dissolving-grade wood pulp,
which is the raw material used in producing rayon, cellophane and
and other products.



                                  (MORE)
     The waters near the Ketchikan plant in Ward Cove have been
classified as "impaired" by EPA, Clarke said, because of the
adverse cumulative effect of waste discharges including solids, 
toxic chemicals, alkaline substances and oxygen-depleting materials
that deprived the cove of its potential as a marine habitat.  The
vicinity of Ward Cove is populated with numerous species of
wildlife including Killer Whales, Salmon, Halibut, Sea Otters, and
various birds.

     Today's civil settlement resolves hundreds of violations of
the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, said Schiffer.  The
complaint asserts that KPC violated the Clean Air Act when one of
its boilers spewed 1600 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air
illegally over a two-year period.

     The Clean Water Act allegations include 42 occasions on which
the discharges from KPC's mill were more acidic than its discharge
permit allowed.  Additional limits were exceeded on three dozen
other occasions.  KPC also repeatedly failed to properly report
discharges from its mill, as required by its EPA discharge permit.

     "In settlement of the civil case, Ketchikan Pulp agreed to
help restore Ward Cove by spending up to $6 million to reverse the
effects of contaminated bottom sediments that have built up over
the years," Clarke said.  "The consent agreement requires Ketchikan
Pulp to upgrade its water pollution control activities at the mill,
and to curtail its emissions of air pollutants as well."

     To settle the civil case, Ketchikan Pulp agreed to pay a civil
penalty of $3,111,000 for Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act
violations.  In addition to the penalties and the Ward Cove
sediment remediation project, Ketchikan Pulp also agreed to take
several remedial steps:

*    eliminate direct discharges that bypass its water treatment
     plant,
*    improve the mill's spill containment program, 
*    use only state-certified wastewater treatment operators,
*    improve monitoring and laboratory analysis,
*    conduct tests that will measure all sulfur dioxide
     emissions at the mill, and
*    conduct a facility-wide environmental audit at the mill to
     ensure full compliance with environmental laws and help
     prevent pollution.
     
     KPC is a Washington Corporation, and is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Louisiana-Pacific Corporation.  Its mill uses
millions of gallons of water a day that must be treated in
accordance with EPA permits.  

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