Opinion ID: 1694475
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: georgia-pacific personnel

Text: Warren Richardson, general manager of the Leaf River mill, had on-site responsibility for its operation. Richardson had been at the mill since 1989. Acker Smith, manager of environmental affairs for the mill, had worked there since 1983. Both were named as defendants by the plaintiffs. Both testified as adverse witnesses and as witnesses on direct examination. Their testimony covered a number of areas as follows: The Color Question  The mill discharged approximately nineteen million gallons of effluent, or waste water, into the Leaf River daily. The mill had received a permit from the State of Mississippi which required it to control the color differential of the river from above the mill to below the mill. The color differential referred to the ability of light to be transferred through the water. The mill had performed no chemical color treatment on the Leaf River in 1991 until October, but both Richardson and Smith denied that this was related to the cost of the treatment. Smith agreed that the mill's effluent changed the color of the Leaf River but denied that there was anything unnatural about the color change. The Sludge Question  Sludge is a solid waste product of the bleaching process. The Leaf River mill produced 75 to 100 tons of sludge per day. It was sold by the mill to the public for potting soil or to be spread on agricultural land. Warren Richardson agreed that the sludge sold by the mill had detectable levels of dioxin in it. He also agreed that a permit was required from the State before the sludge could be spread. Richardson denied that the mill was required to tell the farmers using the sludge that they should not graze cattle on that land for one year after use, saying that information was voluntarily disseminated by the mill. Acker Smith testified that the dioxin levels in the sludge were below that found to be a problem by the EPA, and there was no need to warn the farmers who purchased this material. Reduction of Chlorine Use  The paper mills' practice of bleaching their pulp product with chlorine caused dioxin to be generated as a by-product. Warren Richardson and Acker Smith both maintained that the Leaf River mill had made a concerted effort beginning in 1987 to reduce the mill's use of chlorine as the bleaching agent and to substitute in its place chlorine dioxide. Both testified that the mill had used no chlorine since July 1990. Due to this and other steps, Richardson stated that the mill had achieved non-detectable dioxin levels in its effluent since the summer of 1990. Richardson agreed that one of the advantages of using chlorine as a bleaching agent was its lower cost, and that the use of chlorine dioxide in the bleaching process was not new to the paper industry. Donations to Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality  Warren Richardson had in 1990 sent a check for $150,000.00 to the DEQ, along with an article taken from Business Quarterly, Fall 1990. The article dealt with allocation of resources, and Richardson had highlighted several portions dealing with expending large amounts of resources to save relatively few people. The donation was to be used to fund continuing fish studies, and Georgia-Pacific had entered into an agreement with DEQ to continue yearly contributions for this purpose. Office Memoranda  Plaintiffs Exhibit 286 was a Great Northern Paper inter-office memorandum from V.V. Lapinoja, director of research, to D.K. Phenicie, manager of environmental affairs, dated October 7, 1985. Exhibit 286 dealt with detection of dioxin in the sludge of certain paper mills in Maine. Warren Richardson testified that the memorandum gave him little concern because it did not involve the plant in which he was working at the time. Acker Smith denied that Exhibit 286 should have alerted him and others at the mill that dioxin could be going into the Leaf River via the effluent. Smith also denied that dioxin could have been detected in the effluent if the mill had tested for it at that time, considering the low amounts present and the technology existing at that time. Smith added that the dioxin levels at Leaf River were so much lower than those found in the Maine paper mills that he felt that there was no problem. Plaintiffs' Exhibit 287 was a telefax dated September 30, 1987, from Peter Schmutzler, one of Leaf River's European agents, to R.C. Miller of the Leaf River mill, asking for certification on behalf of the Melitta Company that the pulp produced by the mill did not contain any dioxin. Melitta produced coffee filters with the pulp purchased from the mill. Someone had written across the bottom of the telefax, not to be answered. Warren Richardson stated that the person to whom the telefax had been sent was not qualified to answer it. He added that the mill had subsequently developed a sampling program with Melitta. Plaintiffs' Exhibit 289 was a Leaf River office memorandum dated October 14, 1988, from R.A. Venditti to D.R. Hubbard, entitled Possible Effects of the Dioxin Issue at Leaf River Forest Products, Inc. A large portion of the memorandum dealt with costs for dealing with dioxin, and none of the memorandum dealt with possible health risks for those who might be exposed. Plaintiffs' Exhibit 290 was a Leaf River office memorandum dated November 11, 1988, from D.R. Hubbard to various mill personnel concerning sampling at the mill by the National Council on Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI), the scientific or technical branch of the American Paper Institute, as part of a twenty-five mill dioxin study. The memorandum summarized various operations procedures and suggested changes for these procedures during the actual sampling period. Warren Richardson testified that NCASI and EPA were aware of the steps being taken before the test sampling was done, and that these steps were being taken according to NCASI and EPA guidelines. Plaintiffs' Exhibit 292 was a Leaf River office memorandum dated January 27, 1989, referring to an EPA study on dioxin levels of fish caught in the area. The memorandum stated that as to the testing protocol, Great Northern Nekoosa has been denied confidentiality. Warren Richardson stated that he had not written the memorandum and was not yet working at the Leaf River mill when it was written. He agreed that he had received a copy of the memorandum but denied that it had any special meaning for him at the time. Richardson denied that the memorandum referred to an effort on the part of the mill to cover up the information about dioxin being found in the fish. He stated instead that Exhibit 292 referred to industrial confidentiality, or certain trade secrets the mill did not want to reveal to competitors despite its participation in the EPA study. Press Releases  Warren Richardson denied that the defendants had put out inaccurate, misleading press releases. He agreed that the press release of July 20, 1990, which mentioned the improved levels of dioxin in nine catfish caught in the Leaf River did not mention the actual dioxin levels of two other catfish, though the release did state that the catfish had elevated levels. Richardson stated that the levels not reported were from a kind of catfish that had not been caught before, so there was nothing to compare them to. He added that the two fish did not represent a satisfactory sample of what people would catch or consume in that area. Warren Richardson also drank a sample of water drawn from the holding pond at the Leaf River mill. The sample was presented to the jury so that they could smell it. Richardson denied that it had any smell.