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Shi ate leak ele

NEIGHBOURS J Jim Borske and Tom Menzel have lived within
two blocks of Lake Superior Paper Industries’ Duluth pulp
and paper mill since it was built four years ago. They say they
don’t mind living next to it.

* from front

Neighbours approve

what problem you had. They

were in here.with a crew two

days later and they washed
everybady’s house. ] was the

’ first one. to get my house
cleaned. They cleaned every
one of our lawn ornaments.””
There was an odour pro-
blem when the mill first
started operation because of

a malfunction with a clarifier
’ tank, Menzel said. But that
-.was quickly solved and
“-they’ve had no complaints
since.

“There’s been no smell
that I notice,’”” Menzel says.
“No precipitate coming out
“oF either ,of their, stack

apart fi vomveart' = .

i. BUH vay thei’ Profiety
“Tyalies have | gone up since the
mill came in.

- “Mine definitely went
up,” said Borske. ‘'l just
‘gold ‘it, I got double what I
paid for it.”’

, Neighbours down

i

the

street — like Debbie Rintala

-- have few complaints }-~

about the mill, ‘‘I have never
since I've been over here
smelled an odour from the
paper mill,” she says. :

Across the freeway, where
some houses are even closer
to the mill, Kaye Sampson
says she can occasionally
smell it.

**It's not that often, but it
does smell,’’ she says. ‘Not
real bad, like a normal pulp
mill, though. It’s -more of a
pleasant, woodsy smell.”’

Ray Carroll lives next door
and agrees, ‘‘There’s no
strong smell from the mill,’’
he says. ‘‘The freeway’s
worte 1HAi the fam et ts 1

“*There was alot of ‘con- |
cern at the beginning about
pollution,”’ says Jody: Cox,
business page editor at the
Duluth News-Tribune. ‘But
this mill is state-of-the-art.
It’s been a success story,’’

How Orenda’s

sUgeppan oo

plan compares

Qrenda’ Ss proposed ground-

wood pulp and paper mill south -

of Lakelse Lake is basically the
same as the mill local represen-
tatives toured i in Duluth, Minn.

Just as | -with the mill in
Duluth, ‘Orenda wants to use
machineiy from Tampella Inc.,
a. Finnish ‘firm, to produce
magazine-quality paper using a
pressurized groundwood pro-
cess. | : on

Huge’ ceramic rollers: grind -
shojteried “logs: into: pulp, .in-
sted df'cooking the wood into
pulp! asiKraft' mills do.

Buf there are some important

"differences: oan

¢ Lake’ Superior ‘Paper In-

“dustries ALSPD) . al Duluth ‘is
_ Significantly” larger ‘than the:

Orenda proposal. The Duluth

, mill’ produces 800 tonnes of

thy

paper a°day, compared to a

-plaritied 500 ‘tonnes per day at
+ “Orenday 7" _
Cee “Orthida’s:" new. . -sité eight

fe ae

. ‘kifommeties | : south. -of> Lakelse
| Eaketis located-on a’ plateau bet- _

Weds the’ headwaters. of the .

. ,Kitimat.and’ Lakelse Rivers, —

“ott important salmon streams. .

' ESP is located’on the former.
y Spite nf a-junkyard in a residen-.
{Hal ‘area.of West, Duluth.

t foci it.

‘ clegi

sikgad' and PCB: ‘contamination

: ‘on the site was cleaned, up prior

o the mill coming in. tie

| SPLi treats its waste water ©

: and then’ discharges’ it to the.
_-miinicipal sewage system. Oren-
sda claims It.will discharge no li-

‘quid effluent. The company has

-eommitted.: itself to using:

-evaporators : ‘to purify and recy:
pwaate. water. Retultant

“yt

“at
Ha,

“yaad
Hat

pulp residue and wood waste
that’s burned,

* LSPI uses hydrosulfite to
bleach its pulp. Orenda would
use the cleaner hydrogen perox-
ide bleaching process, © ~
’ # Sludge from the pulp pro-
cess and woodwaste from the
debarking process would be in-
cinerated in Orenda's. planned
natural gas- fired boiler on site.
The ash is to put into. landfills
‘on ‘the mill site,

Those materials are. also. in-
cinerated at LSPI,- but it hap-
pens‘half a mile away at an old
Minnesota Power.boiler...

© LSPI itself requires. no. ef-
fluent’..or | emissions permits
‘from the’ Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency, That's bécatise
‘the ‘city..of Duluth owns’ the
“power boiler where the mill's
-solid waste is incinerated! and
Hiquid- effluent is sent to the
West ‘Lake Superior Sanitary

_ District; which handles-effluent —

from several area ‘pulp mills.” ,
The Orenda prapiosal is :sub-
ject to review by provincial and
federal agencies: under. the Ma-
jor Project Review Process, It
will have to meet air: etttissions
standards, ‘and B.C.’s environ-

-ment ministry. says) the mill. ,
_won't. be given.-any.: ‘permit’
allowing for the discharge. of ti.’

quid: effluent...” :
.© LSPI © takes baisam ‘and

"spruce from up to 200 miles -
\ away | in” northeastern -Min-_
_inesota.: Orenda's- wood supply...

‘extends. as far orth, a8 the.
Stewart area, .

“paper by running: it through:

large teels to polish ‘the paper .
and - give it a: fustrous: sheen,':’

“4 ‘paper With aclayst biited so
cin the final tage’ ‘of its proces,

ED Te PRI eg ee pena tet geen e ane Bene eee gr eee

Stories by Jeff Nagel

Local reps impressed by
Minnesota paper mills ©

——— een

Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 11, 1991 — Page A5

Airfare and accommodation costs for the trip to Minnesota
by reporter Jeff Nagel were pod for by Orenda Forest Pro-

ducts.

The company did nat, have arty control over the editorial

content of the storles.”

_ ducts’

Pe. LSPI “guper-calenders?” ts |

DULUTH — Local: represen-
tatives say they were impressed
by what they. saw when they.
toured two pulp and paper mills
in Minnesota. ..

Most of them now say “they
will support Orenda Forest Pro-
proposals. to build a
similar groundwood mill. gkm
south of Lakelse Lake, subject
to approval by the province's

Major Project Review Process

(MPRP).

The group looked at Lake
Superior Paper Industries’
pressurized groundwood pulp
and paper mill in Duluth, and
Blandin Paper Co,’s mill in’
Grand Rapids.

“I am confident that there
will be no noise and no smell,’’-
said city alderman Rick King,
who said he was extremely
cautious about any talk of a mill
in the valley.

“T came here with a very:

critical eye,”” he said. “I would
rather have no project than a
bad project. But it loaks to me
like it’s going to be a low-
impact mill on the environment
and ecology.”’

“T think we're going to end
up with a state-of-the-art en-
vironmentally sound industry. I
think it’s going to be an asset to
the community, We, the public,

. just have to keep them honest
’ and make them keep the stan-

dards that they have set out. If
they don’t I'll be the first one all

“could detect

TERRACE MAYOR Jack Talstra and Orenda vice president Frank

over them.’

“The Minnesota mills were
“much cleaner’? than kraft
mills in B.C., said Hoa Le, a
waste management technician
with the B.C. environment
ministry. ‘‘I’m sure Orenda will
be able to meet provincial en-
vironmental standards,” he ad-
ded.

Terrace mayor Jack Talstra
said he now leans toward sup:
porting the mill plan, but wants
more questions answered,

“I was impressed,’” he said..
“It does seem to me to be a
pollution-free mill. But I’d like
to know exactly what ingre-
dients are coming out of the
stack.”

“There was no smell that [
whatsoever,”
Talstra added. “‘There was a
steam plume venting through

“the top of the milk, but it went
-up about 25 to 30 feet into the

air and then dissipated.”

He also said he wants to get
sludge samples he took from the.
Duluth mill independently
analyzed.

’ 71 was impressed. It does
seem to me to be a pollution-
free mill,”

Dan Eastman, a steam
engineer at Burocan’s kraft
pulp mill in Kitimat and
Tepresentative of the Terrace
District Labour Council, said
the Duluth mill is ‘completely
different’? from Euracan.

Foster examine the finished product — magazine-quality super-

calendered paper —.

at the Duluth pulp and paper mill. Talstra was

~ Looks. Clean, but...

Rick King

*This mill is far cleaner,’’ he
said. ‘With this mill, you don’t
have the chemicals and the
sulphur smells. It’s zero com-
pared to a’kraft mill. It’s the
way of the future.”

Local union representatives

at the Blandin mili in Grand
Rapids said there is a waiting
list of farmers who want ash
‘from the mill’s sludge in-
cinerator to put in their fields.

Kitselas band member
Wilfred. McKenzie said he was
impressed, but hasn't taken a
position on Orenda’s proposal.

“(’m quite pleased with what
I saw,”’ he said, “Being:a clean
operation, it’s better than I ex-
pected. Visibly it looks good.

There was very little there ex-

cept steam coming out.’

McKenzie said he will reserve’

judgment on Orenda’s claims of
zero liquid effluent: until he has
a chance to.. Teview the com-

‘Dan Eastman

pany’s new prospectus .more
~ fully.
Kitimat Chamber of Com-

merce representative Mike Scott

said he is now convinced.

“IT went there looking for
problems and I can’t see any,’*
he said. ‘I'm convinced the
Orenda mill is going to be state-
of-the-art, I’m going to Support
it.”

:Rejection. of Orenda now
would make the Skeena region a
dead zone for any potential j in-
dustry in the future, says Peter
Monteith, the city of Terrace’s
economic development officer.”

“If this project runs into tots

of opposition and gets shot,

down, we-cdn forget about ever
attracting anything else again,"’
thé says. ‘Because if that’s not
clean enough, nothing’s ever
going to be. If they don’t want
this, they don’t want any in-

dustry — period.’*

one of several local representatives who toured the mill and talked
to nearby residents,

os ae

Kraft pulp | use a concern ©

DULUTH — Minnesota en-
vironmental | groups say a pulp
and paper-mill at Duluth similar
to Orenda’s proposed mill south
of Lakelse Lake can't be com-
‘pared to traditional bleached
kraft. pulp mills.

‘Lake Superior Paper In-
dustries (LSPI) started produc-
ing high-quality magazine finish
paper at Duluth four years ago

‘using: the same groundwood

process proposed by Orenda.
“It’s a, pressurized ground-
_ wood mill,. so they're not using

‘a lot of toxic chemicals to pulp °

wwith'and- they’re not using
chlorinated .compounds to
‘bleach with,’ said Tim Martin,
_Greenpeace’ s. Chicago-based
“pulp and paper campaigner.

- “Compared to other pulp
- mills such as the big kraft mills,
‘this Is very, very minor in terms

. of the toxic’ loading.” .
“The mill's record has been

clean so far, according to John
Pegors,. the former regional

director of the Minnesota Pollu-

‘tidn'Control Agency.
‘Pegoré retired two. years ago

"after state officials tried to have”

with’ the mill: on ‘site,”

him demoted and transferred, to
a remote corner of the state he
calls ‘Gulag Northwest.’ He
had. publicly fingered Potlatch
‘Corporation’s Cloquet mill
south of Duluth for dioxin con-
tamination and had a repula-
tion for. being tough on
polluters..

““T've-seen no problems at all
with it (LSPI),"’ Pegors said last
week. ‘‘That plant is so over-
designed: they’d have to almost
fall’ asleep ‘at the switch for
something to go wrong.’

“But Martin and other area en-
vironmentalists say the mill in-

directly contributes to > pollution

in other areas.-

‘“*Thefe aren't any - problems
SAYS
Duluth ‘environmentalist Dan
‘Conley, “But they're part of the
problem because they’re shipp-

ing in-bleached kraft pulp from
“other: mills.!-

ake Superior buys about a

‘quarter ‘ofits pulp from tradi--

tional kraft.pulp mills, Orendg
t se about 26 per. cent

“teratt: “pulpswith. that rate even-
“Muay declining to 20 per cent.

Conley, an organizer for the
local environmental group
Citizens Concerned Over
Potlatch Expansion, : ‘says: that
creates demand for chictine-
bleached kraft pulp and in-
directly supports pulp mills. in
other areas that are far worse
polluters, His group wants

Potlatch to switch to the cleaner .

hydrogen” peroxide bleaching
process.
“You can look at them
(LSPI) on the surface and say
‘Wow, this is a. wonderful mill
— they’re not doing anything,’
But then if you look where
they're getting their product
from you realize. they're still
part of the overall problem.?”’
‘The chlorine-bleached: ‘kraft
pulp used. by. Lake’ Superior
Paper Industries’ could also
mean the reledse of tiny residual
amounts of dioxins and
organochlorines : in :the ‘ mill’s
-waste water, says Alden Lind, a
consultant and director of Save
Lake Superior Association.
“We're at the: ‘point. where
-you'‘gan’t really detect it,” Lind
said. “But, the. daria ‘stuff, con=

tinues to accumulate, The only
way you can eventually begin to
establish that it's there is by
looking at ithe accumulation i in

fish tissue.’

“And | once contamination. is
detected, “it can be difficult to
prove whith, polluter ., was
responsible, Lind. ! says. “What
we ought to do is ‘eliminate the

use of this chloriije-bleached

pulp.” wo,
‘The toxic contamination
from the actual pulp mill is fair-
Ey minor,”’ Martin adds. ‘“But
the other issues are unresolved,
If they’re going to buy bleached

kraft pulp, then in a sense’

they're contributing to

organochlorine pollution at

another mill.”’

Unlike kraft pulp miils in’ the
‘area the Lake Superior mill.

doesn’t get a lot of attention
from environmental groups,"

Greenpeace campaigners. ig-

nored the mill when they recent-_
‘ly visited Duluth to protest at
the offices of the Minnesota:
Pollution Control Agency and a

nearby kraft. ‘pulp: mill..:

is

oo oN THEI a

Cota ae ic ai Sa acaama RR Rg se Ste eas