WBRZ - Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - State environmental regulators have approved plans for operations to resume at a Bogalusa paper mill responsible for a massive fish kill in the Pearl River.

The Department of Environmental Quality said Monday that it had approved Temple-Inland's request for authorization to restart operations at the mill and to implement its start-up plan. DEQ officials say the mill will have to follow a plan that includes additional monitoring and added safeguards to avoid a repeat of an unauthorized discharge that led to the fish kill.

The start-up process is expected to take at least three days before the mill reaches full operation and production. The first treated wastewater discharge will be a little more than four days from the initial start-up.