A bleached kraft pulp mill used reverse osmosis to treat condensates recycled for brownstock washing. Final effluent BOD and COD were reduced by 2000 kg/d and 4000 kg/d, respectively. Final effluent became non-acutely lethal to rainbow trout and Daphnia magna. Plasma steroid hormone depressions were reduced in fish. This was an environmentally significant process change because, in the absence of secondary effluent treatment, acute lethality was removed and sublethal reproductive effects in fish were reduced.