The Nation - News from April 5, 1989

The Tennessee Health Department warned the public against eating fish from the polluted Pigeon River, saying they are poisoned by cancer-causing dioxins from a paper mill in the Smoky Mountains. The health department said tests show high dioxin levels in fish caught in the river, which flows past the Champion International mill at Canton, N.C., and into Tennessee. Gov. Ned McWherter refused this year to ease Tennessee water quality standards and grant a variance to the mill, which has polluted the river for 80 years. The Environmental Protection Agency is in the midst of a public comment period on a compromise permit for the mill that would require it to operate under Tennessee regulations at the end of three years.