On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the EPA will hold an information session about the ongoing time-critical removal action at the Cosmo Specialty Fibers facility in Cosmopolis.
The session will take place from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Cosmopolis City Hall located at 1300 First St.
During the session, EPA personnel will provide an update on the chemical removal process and be available to answer questions related to EPA activities.
In August, the EPA, in coordination with the Washington State Department of Ecology, began a time-critical chemical removal action at the dormant Cosmo Specialty Fibers pulp mill.
According to the EPA, for the past two years, the EPA and Department of Ecology have worked closely to assess conditions at the non-operational facility and identify actions needed to reduce potential risks to the community and the environment.
More than 750,000 gallons of waste chemicals were stored at the site, and the facility has accumulated more than $2 million in environmental fines.
In April 2026, the Department of Ecology, the long-term lead agency for the site, requested EPA assistance with the removal of the remaining chemicals in tanks and containers.
The facility owner was required to submit an EPA-approved work plan by late June and begin conducting the chemical removal under EPA oversight by mid-July. Because these required milestones were not met, the EPA mobilized to the facility in early August to complete the removal effort.
Shortly after the EPA’s clean up efforts got underway, representatives from the agency held drop-in office hours for the public at Cosmopolis City Hall. Nearly a dozen residents attended as Bradley Martin and Thomas Vroman from the EPA spent an hour allaying fears and discussing the process for removing chemicals from the defunct pulp mill and emergency notification procedures should a catastrophic event occur during clean-up efforts.
