[Brownfields-CPEO] Cosmo Specialty Fibers, Cosmopolis, Washington

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

EPA takes over at Cosmo mill to remove leaking acids

By Conrad Swanson
Seattle Times,
August 14, 2026

The feds are moving into Cosmopolis.

In early June, regulators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the owner of Cosmo Specialty Fibers — a now-defunct pulp mill — that he had to start removing hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic and highly corrosive chemicals from the site. They gave him several weeks to develop a plan and get started. But he failed to meet the deadline, so now federal and state officials are taking over.

Not only did the mill owner, U.K. businessman Richard Bassett, miss the deadline for the hazardous chemicals, some of which are actively leaking, but records obtained by The Seattle Times showed he lobbied the highest reaches of the EPA to prevent regulators from escalating the yearslong tug-of-war at the shuttered mill.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/epa-takes-over-at-cosmo-mill-to-remove-leaking-acids/


—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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