MillWatch No. 24 January 2000 News for All Interested in Clean Pulp and Paper Production Featuring News, Analysis, Resources and Contacts

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MillWatch table of contents

MillWatch No. 24 - January 2000

From Sludge to Product?
From Sludge to Plastic
Eulachon Tainting
TRS and Phenols
US Citizens Can Sue Polluters
In Canada Fines are Deductible
Montanans Back To Court
Crying Wolf
East Kootenay Environmental Society Encourages Crestbrook Forest Industries To Fix Landfill Leaks Quickly
Potlatch Permit Tightened
Cutting the Costs of Paper
In Memoriam Alice Chambers

Mill-Watch is sponsored by Reach for Unbleached! Canada to connect people and re-sources working on pulp and paper issues with funding from the Brainerd Foundation and our donors. Thanks to all those in communities working to help their mill clean up. Write to us!

With $15 million in funding from the US Department of Energy and New York state, BioMetics Inc. plans to build a new Biofine demonstration plant that will convert waste paper that can't be recycled into levulinic acid, a high-value chemical. The project has received the US EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award.

Un-recyclable waste paper such as fast food containers, wrapping paper and beverage cartons will be separated from trash bound for landfills. The plant will convert 2,000 tons of paper a day into 20 million gallons of levulinic acid a year. Other raw material will be agricultural wastes such as hay and straw, pulp waste from paper mills and sewage sludge.

Levulinic acid can be used to make petrochemicals and a variety of commercial chemicals, such as solvents and pesticides. Levulinic acids are also important intermediaries in the biosynthesis of tetrapyrrolic dyes, which have been called the "pigments of life." These play an important role for processes like photosynthesis, oxygen transport, oxidation processes, methane synthesis and others and their introduction to the environment should be avoided.

Biofine's process creates levulinic acid from virtually any biomass waste for as little as one-tenth the current cost. Presently, levulinic acid is processed from non renewable fossil fuels. It's expensive to make, costing an average of $1 per pound to produce and is sold for $10,000 a ton. "We can produce [levulinic acid] for as little as 5 cents a pound," said BioMetics' co-founder Stephen Fitzpatrick, "then sell it for $250 a ton."

* Jay Ritchlin, Pollution Prevention Researcher, Reach for Unbleached!

Cargill and Dow Chemical have teamed up in a company called NatureWorks to launch commercial production of a natural plastic grown from plants such as wheat and corn.

The companies say the plastic, called polylactide or PLA, will be suitable for a wide array of uses from clothing to carpets to food containers and plastic wrap. PLA is similar to polyethylene terephthalate( PET) but is biodegradable. The first year's production at a new Nebraska plant is already sold, although it won't be ready until 2002. The company plans to have four plants around the world producing over a billion pounds a year of PLA within the decade.

Cargill insists that genetic engineering was not involved in the development of special microbes, which turn plant starches and sugars into lactic acid. The lactic acid is then reacted with a catalyst to produce PLA.

In the future, Cargill Dow hopes to improve the fermentation process enough to be able to use plant waste products such as corn husks, rice hulls, or wood pulp.

* Wall Street Journal, January 2000

In October, the BC Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) required Eurocan to pay the costs of the Haisla representative on the eulachon taint test development committee, pending the outcome of an appeal filed by West Fraser, Eurocan's owner. For years, the Haisla have been unable to eat their traditional eulachon runs because of taste tainting associated with the pulp mill. The committee is set up to see if improvements to the mill's effluent result in improvements in the taste of the eulachon.

* http://www.eab.bc.ca/

In January the EAB released its ruling on the Powell River BC recovery boiler, where community members had appealed the extension of the deadline for the mill to bring its recovery boiler into line with Level A Air Quality objectives for PM10 and TRS. During the length of the appeal, Pacifica Papers announced a commitment to a new $12.6 million electrostatic precipitator to be completed by September 2000 and expected to bring Particulate emissions well below the Level A objective.

The authority of the Regional Manager to issue the permit deadline extensions was upheld, but the date for TRS Level A compliance was moved forward to June 2001.

The Board considered that there had been valid concerns presented of impact on health from TRS (a mix of H2S (hydrogen sulphide), methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide and noted, "The concern could equally apply to other pulp mill towns where ambient levels of TRS are higher than in Powell River." EAB suggested that the Ministry of Health do a study on pulp mill odours.

Other recommendations of note included:

• an investigation of levels and origin of phenols in local lakes and soils
• that MELP provide DFO with John Keays' information on deformities in shellfish
• additional ambient monitoring and public access to information
• a suggestion that requirement for a sulphur balance be included in future (but not current) permits

In January, the US Supreme Court strongly affirmed the right of environmental groups to lay citizens' suits against polluters when it upheld the case of Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw Environmental Services. Laidlaw had been dumping waste water into a river in North Carolina. There was little evidence of human harm from the effluent, but the court upheld the citizens' right to sue for "injury" from loss of fishing and recreational enjoyment of the river due to fear of its pollution.

* Washington Post January 2000

In January the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that fines are deductible as business expenses, a ruling with wide implications for any industry with regulated penalties. The case involved a 1988 fine levied against a Prince George egg farmer by the BC Egg Marketing Board as an "over-quota" levy. Revenue Canada argued that allowing fines to be tax deductible would soften the penalty, but the Supreme Court said the fines were a business expense if they were received as a result of a business decision intended to produce a profit.

* Vancouver Province, December 1999

In October Montana environmental groups filed a legal order asking for enforcement of a lawsuit settlement to clean up pollution at Smurfit-Stone Container's Missoula, Montana pulp mill. The groups say Smurfit-Stone Container is violating the lawsuit settlement by failing to implement a comprehensive mill-wide pollution prevention plan agreed to by the company.

The enforceable pollution prevention agreement is a five year comprehensive approach to identifying air, water and solid waste pollution at Smurfit-Stone's pulp mill. Dr. Robert Pojasek, a renowned pollution prevention expert, was hired to work with and independently oversee Smurfit-Stone's implementation of the agreement.

The legal order raises additional violations of the lawsuit settlement, including: that Smurfit-Stone Container withheld information; failed to consult the environmental groups prior to undertaking riparian restoration projects along the Clark Fork River on lands adjacent to the pulp mill; and failed to include Dr. Robert Pojasek in the company's analysis of using alternative fibres such as straw to make pulp.

* Darrell Geist Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers; PO Box 7941, Missoula, Montana USA 59807; ph: (406)728-0867; fax: (406)327-1209; cmcr@wildrockies.org

* Charlie Tebbutt, Western Environmental Law Center (541)485-2471 westernlaw@igc.apc.org

In December, Pulp and Paper Online Newsletter let the cat out of the bag, announcing that US EPA's Cluster Rules have cost pulp and paper mills "only a fraction" of the amounts previously predicted. However some mills have upgraded at the same time. The newsletter cites Georgia-Pacific's Palatka, FL, mill which has spent $40-50 million on a new D(EOP)D bleach plant described as "somewhat of an engineering masterpiece."

A blackish pond of toxic chemicals has formed outside the landfill at the Skookumchuck BC pulp mill, because the dike surrounding the landfill is leaking. The East Kootenay Environmental Society is concerned as the landfill is located less than 500 metres away from the Kootenay River, within the 200-year flood plain and it contains years of accumulated toxic chemicals.

Crestbrook Forest Industries admits that a Professional Engineer was not present to supervise the construction of the dike, where the leak is now found. Although engineers designed the dike, verification that the dike satisfied the design criteria is "not available."

"EKES encourages CFI to finish cleaning and fixing the leak as soon as possible and to ensure proper containment of the toxic chemicals within the landfill well into the future," states EKES spokesperson Hugh MacPherson. "The Kootenay River is one of the region's pristine waterways. Industrial waste needs to be managed with the Best Available Technologies to ensure we don't leave a mess for future generations to clean up."

* East Kootenay Environmental Society, November 1999; Box 8, Kimberley, BC V1A 2Y5; ph: (250)427-2535; fax (250)427-3535; email: ekes@ekes.org

Prompted by a lawsuit brought by Idaho environmental groups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December released a proposed water pollution permit for the Potlatch mill in Lewiston, Idaho. The draft permit requires Potlatch to cool its over 40 million gallons per day of effluent from the currently permitted 92_F (33_C) to 68_F (14.4_C) during the summer months. The permit also reduces by two thirds the amount of toxic compounds produced by chlorine bleaching that are allowed to be discharged.

* Idaho Environmental Council et al, December 1999; Mark Solomon, msolomon@turbonet.com; PO Box 8145, Moscow, ID 83843; ph/fax: (208)882-4087;

Global consumption of wood fibre for paper making could be cut by more than 50 percent, reports the Worldwatch Institute. This reduction can be achieved through a combination of trimming paper consumption in industrial countries, improving paper making efficiency, and expanding the use of recycled and nonwood materials, according to Janet Abramovitz and Ashley Mattoon, co-authors of Paper Cuts: Recovering the Paper Landscape.

Global paper use has grown more than six-fold since 1950. One fifth of all wood harvested in the world ends up in paper. It takes 2 to 3.5 tons of trees to make one ton of paper. Pulp and paper is the 5th largest industrial consumer of energy in the world and making paper uses more water per ton than any other product. It also produces high levels of air and water pollution.

Paper makers can adopt proven and profitable methods of production that slash energy use and pollution. Eliminating chlorine bleaching, which is deadly to the environment and dangerous for workers, is an essential step towards producing cleaner paper and improving profitability. Both energy and water usage can be dramatically reduced, and nonwood fibres must be used for pulp.

If industrial countries trimmed their paper use by 30 percent, an amount largely possible through good housekeeping alone, global consumption would fall, and developing-country consumption could rise to meet basic needs without adding to the serious global environmental burden of paper, said the authors.

* Worldwatch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036; ph (202)452-1999; fax: (202)296-7365; worldwatch@worldwatch.org or website www.worldwatch.org