EPA Provides $300,000 in Funding Towards Cleanup of Shuttered Samoa Pulp Mill in Northern California
The Samoa pulp mill site, now known as Redwood Terminal II, pictured in this 2014 photo. – The Times-Standard file
By Shomik Mukherjee, Times-Standard June 16, 2020 - The following story was published by the Times-Standard on June 11, 2020: Officials will make progress in cleaning up toxic waste at the site of the former pulp mill on the Samoa Peninsula with a new $300,000 investment from the Environmental Protection Agency. Business development on the peninsula slowed after the industrial pulp mill closed in 2010. The site — ruled a brownfield by health officials — is plagued by hazardous lead material. The new federal investment will go toward cleaning up the mess. Of the EPA's funding, about $200,000 is in the form of a grant to the Timber Heritage Association (a local logging group) and the other $100,000 is part of a revolving loan fund that Humboldt County will begin to repay in 10 years. "This EPA revolving loan fund has allowed us to abate all the lead-based paint that exists on the existing homes and structures," Chris Dart of Danco Communities, which manages housing on the Samoa Peninsula, said in a news briefing Thursday morning. "These funds will allow the nonprofit Timber Heritage Association to take ownership of the property, clean up the contamination and allow the public to access this historical, cultural resource," an EPA release stated Thursday. The full story is available at: Times-Standard SOURCE: Times-Standard |