Hearing set for Georgia Pacific’s polluted water discharge plan

By James Call, USA Today
The Tallahassee Democrat
March 25, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public hearing in April on Georgia Pacific’s request to release stormwater runoff from a closed paper mill into the Fenholloway River near Perry.  The Koch Industries subsidiary is embroiled in a dispute with neighboring landowners that has forced it to seek a permit to discharge 5 million gallons of polluted water daily from the site of the closed Foley Cellulose plant into the river. In December, GP submitted the permit application after an arbitrator sided with Four Rivers Land & Timber, who had blocked GP’s use of a 15-mile-long pipeline built to carry the discharge to the river’s mouth at the Gulf. …While there is no new effluent or wastewater, because GP has significantly dismantled the plant, there are pollutants in the ground accumulated during the 70 years the plant was in operation. 

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