 |
No. 3 February 1996 News for All Interested in Featuring News, Analysis, Resources and Contacts |
Search this site Campaigns Publications Technical  Pulp & Paper About Reach! Contact Us Links |
MillWatch table of contents
MillWatch No. 3 - February 1996
James River Chlorine Leak
Bleach Plant Corrosion
Lake Baikal Pulp And Paper Mill
New Mills In Russia
New Mill In Nova Scotia
New Enzymes For Bleaching
Pulp And Paper Prices Fall
Environmental Defense Fund's Paper Task Force
Environmental Scholars
Water Reuse
Not Such Great News For The Ohio
OSB Emmission Appeal Won
Conferences
Thanks to Laurie Valeriano of Washington Citizens for Recycling, Shane Hartnell of the Peace River Environmental Protection Association, Archie Beaton of the Chlorine-Free Products Association and Philip Fleischer of Powell River for their help with this issue.
In late January the James River mill in Camas, Washington suffered two simultaneous chlorine leaks, causing the evacuation of 25 workers and the closure of several city blocks around the mill. Residents around the mill were told to stay inside. At 6:15 in the morning a chlorine alarm alerted emergency staff to the first leak, a 3/8-inch hole at the base of a pressure gauge. Only two hours after the first leak was stopped was a second hole discovered in another pressure gauge, which took until after 2 pm to plug. Mill officials estimate about 2,000 pounds of chlorine leaked.
The Camas city fire marshall said that at one point chlorine levels registered 500 to 1,000 parts per million (ppm) in one area of the bleach building, a figure disputed by mill officials. The legal level for chlorine in Washington State is one part per million, with short term exposures of three ppm. Ten ppm is considered life-threatening. An Ecology Department official said readings definitely exceeded 10 ppm. Despite full respiratory suits, workers were unable to stay at the scene of the leak for long periods. One member of the public was treated at hospital for chlorine irritation.
Both leaks started shortly after a two hour power outage that morning. Production at the mill's two paper machines was halted for about two hours during the initial investigation.
* The Columbian, January and February, 1996
Reinforced plastic used for corrosion control equipment with chlorine dioxide needs to be manufactured differently from plastics made for use with chlorine and sodium hypochlorite, according to a recent article in the TAPPI Journal. The authors immersed small samples of reinforced plastic corrosion barriers made with various vinyl ester resins by different methods in the two environments, at varied temperatures and graphed the results over time.
* "Factors affecting the fabrication of corrosion barriers for RP equipment in bleaching environ ments," Lisa M. Adkins, Don W. Daniel, and Dwight A. Rust, Ashland Chemical Co., TAPPI Journal, September 1995, Volume 78, No. 9
Researchers and environmentalists are concerned about the irrevocable changes in the biological composition of water within the aquatic area of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill. They also point at air emissions and damage caused to the shoreline of the largest freshwater lake in the world.
In 1992, Act 925 Act stipulated that production of pulp at Baikalsk Mill would stop by December, 1995 for remodelling of the mill. Nothing has been implemented. In 1992 Baikalsk Plant was privatized, with 51% of the stock belonging to the factory itself.
In September 1995 UN experts evaluated the situation at the mill and claimed that remodelling of the mill is economically inefficient. Modernization would be the only way to solve the Baikalsk mill problem.
The Baikal Centre for Ecological and Citizen Initiatives has issued an international appeal to everybody concerned about Lake Baikal's future to realize that modernizing the mill "will drive our efforts to protect the unique environment of the Baikal region back to 1966, when Baikalsk Pulp and Paper mill started its operation on Lake Baikal's shore. We are in the process of gathering information and will keep you informed of the latest develop ments and we will gladly accept your advice, suggestions and support."
* Baikal Centre for Ecological and Citizen Initiatives, 664000 Irkutsk P.O. Box 1360; email: irkutsk@glas.apc.org
Three pulp and paper mills are planned for the Russian Federation between now and 1999. Hyundai plans to build a 300,000 tons/year mill south of Svetlaya, in the Olg'a harbour. By 1998 a mill on Sakhalin Island will produce 300,000 tons/year of bleached sulphate pulp and a dissolving pulp mill in Arda will produce 100,000 tons/year.
* FAO Projected Pulp and Paper Mills 1995-1999, via Francesco Martone, Greenpeace International
Stora Forest Industries plans to build a new 350,000 t/y thermomechanical mill at Port Hawkes bury Nova Scotia Canada to make supercalendared (SC) paper for the catalogue and periodical market. The project will cost $650 million.
Amid workers' concerns about the impact of this project on Stora's aging sulphite mill on the Strait of Canso, which requires an effluent treatment plant, market analysts were unsure of the ability of the market to absorb the extra SC capacity, especially in the light of reports that another Scandinavian company, Madison Paper Industries, is planning to build a huge SC mill in Maine. About 1.5 million tonnes of SC paper is used in North American annually, much of it coming from Finland's United Paper Mills. Analysts said that the Scandinavians had already "destroyed their market in Europe with capacity additions."
* Globe & Mail, December 1995
Laboratory research from the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN), reported in the September TAPPI Journal, suggests that two new oxidative enzymes, manganese peroxidase and laccase, show promise for commercial use with hydrogen peroxide in totally chlorine-free kraft bleaching. The pulps were analysed for brightness, kappa number, and viscosity.
* "Bleaching kraft pulps with oxidative enzymes and hydrogen peroxide," Michael G. Paice, Robert Bourbonnais, and Ian D. Reid, Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, TAPPI Journal, September 1995, Volume 78, No. 9
Paper prices finally began to fall in November, after steep price increases over the last two years, but disagreement exists over whether the industry is entering one of its typical serious downturns or whether price strength will recover after current inventories are used. In November, mills in North America and Scandinavia began to cut prices, with the price of Northern Bleached Kraft Pulp (NBK) falling to $925 US a tonne from $1,000. In 1993, during the last bust of the bust-and-boom industry, prices bottomed at $390 a tonne, well below the (1991) profit line of about $420-to$450 US.
* Globe & Mail, December 1995
In December a Paper Task Force, composed of Duke University, the Environmental Defense Fund, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, The Prudential Insurance Company of America and Time Inc. issued guidelines for purchasing paper that reduces environ mental impacts while meeting business needs. The guidelines deal with the areas of source reduction, recycling and buying recycled paper, forest practices, general purchasing practices and pulp and paper manufacturing. Examples of implementation:
McDonald's will evaluate coated unbleached kraft paperboard for items such as pie boxes and Chicken McNugget cartons, and non-coated un bleached paperboard for cold cups.
The Environmental Defense Fund used a paper that contains 50% totally chlorine-free virgin kraft pulp along with 50% recycled fibre (10% post consumer) that is also not bleached with chlorine compounds.
Time Inc. is continuing to work with its paper suppliers to encourage their on-going progress toward the "Minimum Impact Mill," minimizing natural resource consumption (wood, water and energy) and minimizing the quantity and maximizing the quality of releases to air, water and land.
* The Paper Task Force report is available on EDF's home page on the World Wide Web: www.edf.org
The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) will soon be launching a major site on the World Wide Web which will include a searchable interdisciplinary database of scientists, faculty, and experts in environmental fields to help scholars share informa tion. This database will allow users to search by keyword and locate one another. To be included in this database, email: wwfnetwork@newmedium.com with the following information: Name, Department, College/University/Organization, Address, State, Country, ph/fax, email address(es) and Research areas/Topics of interest. In your message, please use "environmental scholars" as the subject line, and type each field entry on a separate line. The last field entry should include your area of specialization, current research topics, requests for assistance/documents etc.
The TAPPI Journal August, 1995 (Volume 78, No. 8) includes a peer-reviewed article, "Successful implementation of a zero discharge program," by Ronald T. Klinker. In July 1990, Hennepin Paper Co. embarked on a program to eliminate all discharge to the Mississippi River, successfully achieving zero discharge approximately 30% of the time. "The success of the Zero Discharge Program shows that an existing facility can be retrofitted to recycle wastewater."
In the October issue of MillWatch, we reported that the permit for dioxins of the new mill on the Ohio River would allow zero discharge of dioxins. However, the Ohio Valley and West Virginia Environmental Coalitions are planning to appeal the new permits because, as it turns out, "zero discharge" in permit-talk means non-detectable dioxins and high levels of furans. Dianne Bady told MillWatch that, according to EPA and Fish & Wildlife studies, dioxin levels in fish are already five times over the allowable limit. Further, the mill would, if it went ahead, be highly subsidized by citizens' taxes.
A provincial review of the air emissions permit for the Louisiana-Pacific Oriented StrandBoard plant in Dawson Creek British Columbia has agreed with the Peace Country Environmental Protection Association that the permit, amended in 1994, "does allow for the release of harmful levels of pollution."
The report recommends vastly improved air emissions monitoring to characterize the types and levels of contaminant from the OSB plant, and to assess wind directions in relation to the town and the mill. After two years or sooner if warranted, an environmental review and subsequent changes to the company's waste management permit are to be implemented. Future measures may include a health assessment of the population, as well as installation of recent technology advances such as biofiltration for odour.
The provincial review notes that the difference in testimony between townspeople who were and were not claiming to be affected by the plant's emissions is consistent with "the variability in human response to many of the likely chemicals emitted from the plant," such as phenols, formaldehyde and MDI (diphenolmethane dioisocyonate).
Time for Action: the Third Citizens' Conference on Dioxin and Other Synthetic Hormone Disrupters, March 15-17, 1996 Baton Rouge, Louisiana is focused on designing strategic campaigns participants can take back to their communities to stop sources of dioxin exposure, "reclaim our health" and restore democracy. Contact Citizens Conference on Dioxin, 5301 Rolling Hill Road, Sanford, NC 27330; ph: (919)774-9566; fax 774-7498
"Chemical Exposure and Disease: Is Our Environment Making Us Sick," April 27, Seattle Washington, sponsored by the Washington Toxics Coalition, will feature presentations by senior scientists on toxics and disease, including asthma and indoor pollutants. "Out of respect for our friends with asthma and multiple chemical sensitivity this will be a fragrance-free event." (206)632-8661