The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-11-02
New Court Order F O RIB Masonic
Pollution Pending Suit Hearing
Judge Signs Stdte's Injunction
Holting Discharge of All Wastes
Into River Systems Below Laurel

Into hlVer oYStemS !
The twenty-year-old practice of
of the Masonite Corporation at
Laurel of discharging millions of
gallons of harmful waste daily in
to the Tallahala, Leaf and Pasca-
goula river system was ordered
stopped Immediately by a brief
and clearly-worded temporary in
junction issued Wednesday by
Judge Neville in the Jones Coun-
ty Chancery court.
The order will stand until the
final disposition of the attorney
generals suit for permanent in
junction, now pending in the
court. The temporary order
could also be dissolved by Chan
cellor Neville on appeal by the
defendant company.
However, Forrest B. Jackson,
a Jackson attorney who has been
employer by the state to prose-
cute the case, informed the Chron-
icle-Star Wednesday by telephone
that he understood the Masonite
corporation had agreed to accept
the temporary order on advice of
its Chicago office.
The order issued Wednesday
states:
2.500.000 Gallons
'"The Masonite corporation, de-
PENDANT herein, be, and is hereby
injoined, from casting, II causing
to be cast, or causing or permit
ting to flow, or in any other way
entering, into the waters of Tai
lahala Creek, or any other public
waters of the state of Mississippi,
any waste, effluent, matter or
substance of any kind which is
destructive of fish life, or tends to
destroy fish life. or is injurious
TO fish life, or is destructive or
injurious to other aquatic life"
The Masonite waste has been
estimated in various past state
ments by the company at between
1000, 900 and $500, 900 gallons a
day, the latter figure. being used
in its latest statement on August
30.
In this statement the company
also claimed to have added co.
100000 gallons capacity to what
ever storage capacity was already
in existence for holding this dis
charge. On the basis of the
company's figures, the total dis
charge of the plant can be held
for SO days by means of the "addi-
tional capacity" which has been
added, according to the statement,
since the public campaign against
the pollution problem began in
June. The capacity of the hold
ing basins, in existence before this
campaign, should be expected to
extend the number of days.
In this statement of August 20
the company asserted that it had
made no provision for the re-
moval of wood sugars from the
waste-although chemists who
have studied the problem, includ-
ing those of Masonite, assert that
the wood sugars are the most in
furious substances in the waste.
The eompany's remedial" pro-
gram, on which it was said a quar-
ter of a million dollars would
be spent, was based completely on
methods of removing only wood
fibers, and on the increase of the
storage pond capacity by 90,000,-
900 gallons, SO that the waste still
loaded with wood sugars, could
be held until high water periods.
During these periods of heavy
flow, the company claimed, the
stored wastes could be discharged
into the river system without
damage TO aquatic life and with
out general stream pollution.
CompanY's Claim
If the company's calculations
were correct, operations at the
plant can now be continued for
some time without the discharge
of any waste to the stream, in
compliance with the order issued
Wednesday. Tallahala creek is
not in highwatef state and accord
ing to the company's statement,
its total waste discharge a be
held until such a stage does de-
velop on the river.
BY this time, the states suit
for a permanent injunction
against the stream pollution prac-
tice can be disposed of. If the
states suit is denied, the COM
pany presumably can resume UNI
controlled discharge into the
stream until and unless further
litigation enforces the state anti
pollution law. If the states suit
IS upheld. MaSonite must then in
stall a system capable of remov-
ing the destructive wood sugars
from its waste. which its present