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No. 4 April 1996 News for All Interested in Featuring News, Analysis, Resources and Contacts |
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MillWatch table of contents
MillWatch No. 4 - April 1996
Ozone Bleaching Research
Totally Chlorine-Free Rauma Kraft Mill Up and Running
Ketchikan Air
MillWatch Workshops
My Perspective
Pulp Companies Look for Alternative Fibres
Chlorine Dioxide Critique
Info Needed
Citizens' Dioxin Conference
Columbia River Otters Show Abnormalities
Newsprint Merger
Thanks this issue to Aapo Skogster of Finnex Paper in Vancouver, Laurie Valeriano of Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation, Liz Moses of Washington Toxics Coalition, Marg Clabby of Ketchikan Alaska and Renate Kroesa of Sechelt BC.
MacMillan Bloedel researchers report that major improvements in the selectivity of ozone bleaching can be achieved by carrying it out in an aqueous solution of an organic solvent (methanol or ethanol) less polar than water. Appropriate solvent makes ozone bleaching produce quality which rivals 100% chlorine dioxide for brightness and strength, without requiring an oxygen stage. (An oxygen stage weakens the pulp and makes the retrofit of an existing mill more expensive.) Major challenges are the recovery of the solvent and the flammability of its vapours. "Development work, to be reported at a later date, has satisfied us that these challenges can be met, and that a practical and economically viable process based on ZM can be implemented."
* "Ozone Selectivity Improved with Use of Organic Solvent," Marco Solinas and Thomas H. Murphy, Pulp & Paper March 1996.
Finland's new Metsa-Rauma mill started production, in March making a Totally Chlorine Free LWC (Light Weight Coated) magazine paper with a pulping system which is 90% closed effluent. The mill uses only 10% of the water a normal kraft mill requires. Apparently, the mill told an industry conference in Vancouver in March that the paper cost 15-20% more to produce than a conventional kraft mill, although other reports have said the cost would be similar to those of a mill using chlorine dioxide. The Rauma mill is the largest single-line pulp mill in the world, and requires 3 million cubic metres of softwood annually.
* EnviroLine, December 1995, and sources
The first issue of the Southern Tongass Voice, published by the right-to-know project in Ketchikan Alaska contains an eye-opening summary of the air pollution released by the local kraft pulp mill, where 18 gas releases have sent 14 workers to hospital in the past year and a half. The 1994 USEPA Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Report and 1995 compliance report show the mill releasing over 8 million pounds per year of sulphur dioxide, 9 million pounds of volatile organics, over 200,000 pounds of chlorine and 76,000 pounds of methylene chloride.
* Southern Tongass Voice, Box 23151, Ketchikan AK 99901, email: rtkp@ptialaska.net
One day workshops on pulp mill monitoring, sponsored by the MillWatch program of Reach for Unbleached! and local organizations as co-hosts, will be held in nine communities across British Columbia in 1996. The workshops focus on local concerns about pulp mill emissions, and aim to create improved communication between communities, industries and government, and examine local citizens involvement in monitoring. For more information contact Stefan Ochman, Project Director at 604-753-5402, stefano@epaus.island.net
The first workshop, co-hosted by the Georgia Strait Alliance, was held in Nanaimo in January. Citizens at the workshop decided to focus on air pollution, by helping the BC Ministry of the Environment locate ambient air monitors in appropriate locations, by undertaking a moss and lichen survey, and by starting a local community health survey. Both workshop attendees and mill personnel expressed interest in a mechanism for on-going communication. Because one of the goals of the workshops is to open a two-way dialogue, MillWatch asked the mill's environmental director to tell us what the process looked like from his point of view.
In late 1995, I received a fax from Stefan Ochman, the MillWatch Workshop project leader, inviting my company's mill to the Reach for Unbleached! Foundation's Nanaimo community meeting. It was my understanding that the workshop objective was aimed at getting the community more involved in monitoring the environmental effects of the kraft mill for which I work.
My reaction was initially mixed. We at the mill are pleased with our environmental achievements of the past ten years and I thought that this would provide an opportunity to describe my company's commitment and success towards environmental protection. My concern was simply related to the sponsor of the workshop. The Reach! Foundation remains highly critical of our strategies to reduce our environmental impact and I imagined that the workshop could degrade into a public flogging.
This concern built as the day of the workshop approached. Posters and newspaper ads appeared throughout the community promoting the event. Instead of advertising a session where common ground was being sought between the community and our business, the ads were very derogatory of the mill. Any hope I had that the workshop would enshrine the principles of mutual respect were quickly fading.
Despite this negative advertising campaign, my resolve to participate in the workshop remained. Our employees today are committed to maintaining a healthy environment. In part, our families choose to
live in this area because of the high quality of life it offers. I simply could not stand back and see our efforts over the past many years be belittled or ignored.
To my surprise, the workshop proved to be more positive than I anticipated. The facilitator of the session, Julia Gardner, kept the workshop on time and on course, providing a forum for the participants to ask questions as well as fair time for the speakers and panelists to answer and express their views.
During these discussions, several important messages were impressed upon me. First, many of the participants do not trust that we are honest in reporting our emissions and environmental studies accurately. Second, many of the participants do not understand the relationship between our business and the government regulating agencies. Third, many participants do not appreciate the extent and detail to which our business has undergone, and continues to undergo, environmental impact monitoring.
All of these messages pointed to a basic trust and communication problem between our business and the workshop participants. As a result, I am currently seeking ways to address this problem through the potential development of a broader-based community advisory panel.
In conclusion, the workshop proved to be worthwhile for me in spite of earlier reservations. It is plainly apparent that bridging the gap of understanding between the business I work in and its critics is essential in developing a sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle for all of the citizens in the region.
* Paul Sadler, Director, Environment & Technical Services, Harmac Pacific Inc,
Canadian paper manufacturers are looking at alternative supplies of fibre according to Brian McCloy, senior vice president of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. McCloy said that agricultural waste, such as wheat straw, has potential to be used as feedstock for paper plants. Poplar trees and corn could make the "paper of the future." The industry sees less of a future for hemp and McCloy said the mainstay of the industry in BC will most likely be "traditional softwood kraft pulp."
* Victoria Times Colonist, March 1996
Liz Moses of the Washington Toxics Coalition has completed a 13 page discussion paper on the major limitations of chlorine dioxide based bleaching, including Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) or 100 % chlorine dioxide substitution for chlorine gas. Moses disputes the promotion of chlorine dioxide bleaching as the final solution to the pulp industry's dioxin problems.
"In response to growing criticism over the use of chlorinated bleaching chemicals and organochlorine pollution, the pulp and paper industry has advocated the use of chlorine dioxide substitution as the solution to the "dioxin problem." Cranking up their public relations machine, the industry is trying to convince the citizens and governments of Canada and the United States that chlorine dioxide (ClO2) based bleaching is the superior choice for pulp and paper manufacture. They have even gone so far as to create a new association, the Alliance for Environmental Technology, AET, to advocate chlorine dioxide technology, while bashing totally chlorine free (TCF) as less environmental friendly, more resource intensive, and in shrinking demand across the world.
"Yet as more and more scientific documentation confirms the devastating health effects associated with extremely low levels of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, it becomes clear that chlorine dioxide bleaching - even at 100% substitution (ECF bleaching) - is an inadequate solution to mill organochlorine pollution, put forth as a short-term answer to a long-term problem. Because organochlorines are bioaccumulative and persistent, even small releases to mill effluent, air, sludge, and paper products will add up over time to big problems."
The paper continues to discuss other problems with the use of chlorine dioxide:
"Thus, the pulp and paper industry's claim that ClO2 is, in fact, a solution to the concerns over dioxin and other chlorinated compounds, is based on studies focusing attention on a small subset of the organochlorines actually released. It also ignores the fact that pulp mill effluent is not well characterized." Other effects discussed are air emissions, including volatile and semi-volatile organochlorines, chlorate, sludge disposal, chlorine gas formed as a byproduct, accident risk of ClO2 gas, especially in case of earthquake, danger to workers from leaks, and implications for closed loop.
* "Chlorine Free White Paper: The disadvantages of chlorine dioxide-based bleaching in the pulp and paper industry," by Liz Moses, (February 1996) is available from the Washington Toxics Coalition 4516 University Way NE, Seattle Wa 98105, for the cost of photocopying and postage. Call, fax, or email Liz Moses, phone 206-632-1545; fax 206-632-8661; email: wtc@igc.apc.org.
I am looking for resources on the net regarding Risk Assessment analysis, particularly deterministic vs. monte carlo. The context is dioxin, chloroform and many other chemicals in water, air and landfill leachate from a Louisiana-Pacific pulp mill in Ketchikan Alaska. Also any information on an "Environmental Consultant" EMCON.
* Eric Hummel, Right to Know Project, rtkp@ptialaska.net
The Third Citizens Conference on Dioxin and Other Synthetic Hormone Disrupters, held in Baton Rouge Louisiana in March surprised organizers by drawing over 550 activists from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Greenpeace and the Native Forest Network campaigners mixed with members of the Southern Organizing Committee, which uses its roots in the civil rights movement to fight for environmental justice and against environmental racism.
Most people were from citizens' organizations struggling, and often winning, against local sources of dioxin, such as poly vinyl chloride plants, hazardous waste incinerators, hospital incinerators, cement kilns, and pulp mills using chlorine bleaching. The assembly came from all classes, races, and ages. The conference featured scientific briefings and panel talks from a wide range of organizers about: building coalitions with unions and people of colour; corporate power and the public relations machine; and steps to a green economy. Most of the time was spent in activists' work sessions on nine topics from "Communicating Dioxin," and "Incineration" to "Getting Chlorine Out of Pulp and Paper."
Organized by Citizens' Clearing House for Hazardous Waste and a host of regional networks, the conference aimed to identify coordinated strategies to end contamination by dioxin and other synthetic hormone disrupters worldwide by reclaiming democracy and bringing corporate power back under democratic control. The networks of activists with common struggles from the conference are the first building block in a large people's movement against toxics.
An excellent longer account by Brian Tokar, "Campaigning Against Dioxin," can be found in Z Magazine, May 1996
* Delores Broten
* Contact Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, P.O. Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040 703-237- 2249, cchw@essential.org
River otters trapped in the Lower Columbia River are showing a range of malformations, from small reproductive organs to enlarged spleens. The animals showed high contaminant levels of insecticides, dioxins, heavy metals, PCBs and DDT.
* Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 1996
Donohue Inc., based in Quebec City, has purchased Quno Corp. of St. Catherines to become the largest newsprint producer in Canada and No. 3 in North America. Donohue-Quno will have assets of $2 billion, and 6,000 employees. The new company expects to pay off the $900 million purchase price in three years, even if paper prices drop. A spokesman said, "Our operations produce a lot of cash flow." The listed world newsprint price in early March was $781 US a tonne, but buyers were receiving discounts of $50 Canadian a tonne.
* Globe & Mail, March 1996