st. regis paper co.

2ND STREET SOUTH & CENTRAL AVENUE

The St. Regis Paper Company (St. Regis) Superfund site occupies 125 acres within the exterior boundaries of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Indian Reservation in the city of Cass Lake in Cass County, Minnesota. The site is located north of the Chippewa National Forest and west of Pike Bay and Cass Lake. The St. Regis Paper Company began wood treatment activities at the site in the 1950s while leasing the land from the Great Northern Railroad (now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF)). The company pressure-treated lumber with creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and copper chromium arsenate and discharged wastewater from these processes into a number of disposal ponds located at the site. Between 1957 and 1960, wastewater and sludges were hauled from the ponds to a pit within the former Cass Lake city dump and burned. The disposal from the ponds occurred almost daily at an estimated rate of 500 gallons per day for a total of 547,500 gallons over the three-year period. From 1960 to 1975, the company hauled unknown quantities of sludge to the city dump pit. The pit, containing ash and unburned residuals, was eventually covered. EPA placed the St. Regis site on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1984. In 1985, Champion International Corporation (Champion) acquired the property through a merger with the St. Regis Paper Company and closed site operations. A large portion of the former operations area was then deeded to the city of Cass Lake. Other portions of the site are located on BNSF and Cass Forest Products properties. Champion was acquired by International Paper (IP) in 2000 and IP is the current owner of the former Champion portion of the St. Regis site. Site Responsibility The St. Regis site is being addressed through potentially responsible party (PRP) actions under state and federal oversight. EPA conducts oversight of PRP work at the site with assistance from its support agency partners, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

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