Both formaldehyde and sodium pentachlorapheanate are known carcinogens that produce any of several serious medical problems for infected people and animals including cancer, coma and death. Prevention of this dumping is of critical importance for many reasons. The waters from the Mountain Fork River flow into the Little River just southeast of Broken Bow and serve the public water supply system of Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border. In addition to that, the Mountain Fork River below Broken Bow Lake is a vibrant outdoor recreation area where many thousands of people go each year for canoeing, kayaking, tubing, fishing, camping and many other activities where participants would be unnecessarily exposed to toxic, hazardous chemicals from direct contact with the water, as well as indirect contact through consumption of trout, bass and other fish taken from the waters of the Mountain Fork River. The consequences of allowing Weyerhaeuser Co. to dump its industrial waste into the Mountain Fork River are severe and life-threatening. Citizen action MUST be taken NOW to protect the water supply of Texarkana and the recreational waters of McCurtain County, Oklahoma, as well as downstream waters in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Pollution of the Mountain Fork River will result in pollution of several major waterways below Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The Mountain Fork River flows into the Little River, which then flows east into Arkansas before turning south and flowing into the Red River in northwestern Louisiana. The Red River then flows southeast across Louisiana through Shreveport and Alexandria before emptying into the waters of the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Carcinogenic pollution of the Mountain Fork River thus negatively impacts a large population of US citizens in at least four states while polluting the Mountain Fork, Little, Red and Mississippi Rivers, as well as the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans.

Comments regarding the proposed dumping of formaldehyde and sodium pentachlorapheanate into the Mountain Fork River by Weyerhaeuser Co. should be sent to the Governor of Oklahoma, both Oklahoma U.S. Senators, five Oklahoma members of the U.S. House of Representatives, all Oklahoma State Senators and Representatives, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ), the National Forest Service and the Ouachita National Forest. Contact information for the appropriate federal and state agencies is found at the right. To facilitate that process, and to allow us all to speak with a unified voice in this matter, below you will find a copy of a letter that you can print, sign and send.

For maximum effectiveness interested parties should contact ALL these elected and appointed representatives to call attention to this serious matter that requires broad participation from all levels of state and federal government. The names and addresses (to the right) for sending letters are:

Contact the EPA Dallas office to express your concern and outrage at the way ODEQ and the State of Oklahoma are acting in regard to this issue. Your voice is critical in protecting the Mountain Fork, Little, Red and Mississippi Rivers from Weyerhaeuser toxic pollution. The contact information for the EPA in Dallas is below the other contact names on the right. Do not DeLay - ACT TODAY!