Federal and state regulators have lodged a proposed consent decree requiring Domtar Paper Company to pay $1,905,000 to settle claims over decades of industrial contamination in the lower Roanoke River watershed near Plymouth, North Carolina. The agreement, filed September 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, caps a lengthy investigation into pollution tied to a paper mill that has operated along the river since 1937.
According to the Federal Register, the settlement breaks down into $1,750,000 earmarked for a NOAA restoration fund and $155,000 to cover administrative costs for the U.S. Department of the Interior. As reported by Inside Climate News, the broader agreement would also require Domtar to fund restoration of more than 1,000 acres of sensitive habitat in the watershed, addressing damage that predates the company's own ownership of the site.
Inside Climate News reports that Weyerhaeuser Company, which operated the mill from 1957 to 2007, discharged toxic dioxins, furans and mercury into the Roanoke River for 50 years, with scientists later finding dioxins in river sediment, wood duck eggs and fish. Domtar assumed liability for cleanup after buying the 2,400-acre property at the confluence of Welch Creek and the Roanoke River from Weyerhaeuser in 2007, according to the same outlet's reporting. The plant today makes absorbent materials used in diapers and other paper hygiene products.
Decades of Fish Consumption Warnings
State fish consumption advisories tied to mill discharges first appeared along Welch Creek and the lower Roanoke River in 1990, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The warnings expanded to the western Albemarle Sound in 1991 and were broadened again in 1997 and 2006 to address elevated mercury levels, the agency notes. State health officials in 1990 recommended limiting consumption of carp and catfish caught in or near the river to no more than one meal per month, per Inside Climate News reporting.
The World Health Organization has reported that dioxin can cause reproductive and developmental problems, immune-system damage and cancer even at very low levels, Inside Climate News notes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains limits for dioxin in drinking water and requires facilities to report dioxin releases through pollution permits. Pulp and paper mills nationwide discharged dioxin into waterways until the late 1980s, when an EPA national dioxin study found the chemical in fish and sediment, though the industry has since accounted for less than 1 percent of dioxin releases over the last decade. Domtar released 3 grams of dioxin into waterways in 2024, which Inside Climate News reports represented one-third of North Carolina's total dioxin discharge that year.
Fish Kills From Cooling Water Withdrawals
Weyerhaeuser withdrew water from the Roanoke River for manufacturing, and those withdrawals killed larval fish by drawing them into cooling tanks, according to state and federal records cited by Inside Climate News. The same records indicate the withdrawals reduced the number of striped bass, river herring and white perch by 100,000 fish each day. The proposed consent decree filed under Civil Action No. 4:26-cv-00172 does not require future reductions in cooling-water withdrawals; instead, it credits Domtar for high-capacity cooling towers that had already eliminated withdrawals from the river, according to the Federal Register, alongside upgrades to lighting at the Plymouth plant and boat-ramp and waterfront-park improvements already completed by Domtar.
The lawsuit and resulting draft restoration plan were brought under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act by three joint trustees — NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, which explains the legal authority empowering federal and state regulators to pursue natural resource damage claims. Reid Wilson said residents of Plymouth and downstream communities deserve a healthy and clean Roanoke River, according to Inside Climate News, while the settlement would ensure protection of fish and wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities and resilience to flooding.
Culverts and Wetlands Targeted for Repair
Under the draft restoration plan, a proposed conservation deed restriction would protect 760 acres of Warren Neck forested wetlands, which provide fish nursery habitat important to the river's health, per Inside Climate News. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes a floodplain reconnection project that calls for repairing or replacing up to five degraded culverts where local roads cross the lower Roanoke River floodplain, restoring natural water flow and fish migration. The broader restoration project would reconnect three miles of historic stream channels to their natural flow and improve more than 600 acres of habitat, Inside Climate News reports.
The Nature Conservancy in North Carolina already owns and protects about 2,000 acres near the Domtar site, having begun protecting lands along the Roanoke River in 1982. Julie DeMeester plans to submit comments on the draft restoration plan, according to Inside Climate News. Larry Baldwin said the Roanoke is a lifeblood for North Carolina and the major player in impacts to the Albemarle, per the same reporting — a reference to Albemarle Sound, which remains on the federal list of impaired waters.
A River of National Ecological Significance
The lower Roanoke River includes the largest intact systems of bottomland forests on the Atlantic coast, stretching 137 miles of exceptional habitat before the river's full 410-mile run from Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains to the Albemarle Sound, Inside Climate News reports. More than 200 bird species live or breed in the river's floodplain, and the waterway supports one of North Carolina's most diverse fish communities, including the Atlantic sturgeon, which is on the endangered species list.
Plymouth, the county seat and largest municipality in Washington County, had a population of 3,320 recorded in the 2020 U.S. Census, making it a small, rural river town where the paper mill remains a dominant economic presence. Census data cited by Inside Climate News shows that two-thirds to 90 percent of residents in neighborhoods near the Domtar plant are people of color.
Prior Cleanup Efforts and Corporate History
This is not the first regulatory reckoning at the site. Under an earlier April 2011 Superfund Alternative consent decree with the U.S. EPA, Domtar agreed to perform $1.959 million in site cleanup actions and reimburse the federal government at least $3.2 million for past EPA response costs. The EPA considered the Weyerhaeuser site eligible for the Superfund program, and it is being remediated under the Superfund Alternative approach. Weyerhaeuser excavated contaminated material from the landfill and former chlorine plant before Domtar purchased the property, and Domtar has spent at least $5.5 million on remediation since 2011, including installing a thin sand cap to contain contaminated sediment in Welch Creek, per Inside Climate News.
Domtar's environmental liabilities extend beyond North Carolina. In a separate state action in June 2025, Michigan's Attorney General secured a consent decree requiring Domtar to pay $300,000 and clean up PFAS-contaminated industrial compost near Port Huron, a case Hoodline previously covered. Domtar has reserved further comment on the Roanoke River settlement until the public comment period concludes and the consent decree is ordered by the court, Inside Climate News reports. The public can comment on the proposed restoration plan through October 16.
