Local Mill Comes Clean

I sit in my math class in Founders Hall and occasionally stare out the window while absorbing some new method that Gauss came up with to make my life easier. I usually hang on to Dr. Crowe's every word (honest), but occasionally my mind wanders. The white plumes of the Samoa Mill are illuminated by sunshine overhead and set against a background of Southwest clouds. It reminds me of the mills of Maine and of my father kidding me that the smokestacks are just cloud-makers. That made it all sound so benign. But in fact, people can no longer eat fish from the Androscoggin river which runs past the mill; the dioxin levels are too high. In fact, thick sulfurous stench permeates Rumford, Maine to a degree which makes even the worst days in Eureka smell like the top of a baby's head. In fact, the cloud-makers are preparing a caustic rain which must eventually come down on somebody's head. The Louisiana-Pacific (L-P) mill in Samoa has taken steps to avert this day of precipitant reckoning. The Samoa Mill is cleaner than the mills I grew up around; they are actually cleaner than any mill of their kind in the country. The Samoa Mill currently has a head start down a road of synergy between humans and the environment. As future Environmental Resources Engineers we will benefit from the experience gained at the Samoa Mill. If we are lucky, we may later guide other mills, industries, or cities down a similar road. The L-P mill in Samoa is the first kraft pulp-mill in the United States to become Totally Chlorine Free (TCF). There are other mills which utilize a process which is Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF), but uses chlorine compounds. The Samoa Mill has removed chlorine from their pulping process altogether and is now taking steps toward becoming the first mill in the world to recycle 100% of the water used in the bleaching process. Outlined here is an overview of the events which led up to L-P's decision to go TCF, with a brief overview of the mechanics of the pulping process. The article also answers some questions surrounding the recent and future improvements at the mill, including a description of the human catalysts and chemistry involved.

TCF Set in Motion

First, how was the process set in motion? In the 1980's there were increasing complaints by people surfing off the North Jetty of Humboldt Bay's entrance (near L-P's effluent pipes). The Surfers were developing rashes, sinus problems, and respiratory problems. These are all symptoms connected with exposure to organo-chlorines. At the time there was a thick reddish-yellow plume in the water from the mill's effluent. These symptoms left the average enthusiast searching for cleaner surf. Fortunately, there were avid enthusiasts, The Surfrider Foundation, who simply had to catch those particular waves, and who wanted them clean.

The Surfrider Foundation Lawsuit

The Surfrider Foundation sued Louisiana-Pacific in 1987 for industrial permit violations under the Federal Clean Water Act. The surfriders won the suit which entailed that L-P was required to pay the surfriders $262,000 and further treat the chlorine effluent from their Samoa Mill before discharging it into the ocean. The court mandated justice did little to actually right the environmental wrongs. The court order was a typical attack of the wrong end of the problem; however, both L-P and the Surfrider Foundation went beyond the court's shortcomings. Louisiana-Pacific made a bold move toward stewardship in using the best available technology to maintain a clean environment; the surfriders committed the money won in the suit to maintain and enhance the environment we all live in.

Where did the $262,000 go? According to Glenn Stockwell, the local chapter's national surfrider representative, the bulk of the money was given to the Humboldt Area Foundation (HAF). The net earned interest from this $262,000 will be doled out annually by HAF to "improve, enhance, or restore recreation facilities" in the greater Humboldt County area. In addition, $68,000 was given to Dr. Lou Edward's closed system research which will be discussed in more detail later. The rest of the money goes towards North Jetty improvements, including a remote solar telephone on the jetty, which has already saved a number of lives.

Environmental Protection & Business Coming Together

Louisiana Pacific officials were also more far-sighted than the courts mandate stipulated. L-P saw a more encompassing solution than the standard separation of the toxic chemicals from the effluent. They recognized that this typical back-end approach to the problem would leave toxic chemicals to be disposed of. They sought to avoid the perennial question of who's back yard to store the chemicals under. Officials at the mill saw, in the models of some European pulp mills, the opportunity to eliminate the chlorine from their bleaching process. They recognized chlorine as harmful and seized a chance to implement the European model at their Samoa Mill.

Dangers of Chlorine

L-P's choice to go chlorine-free at their Samoa, Ca. pulp mill was in recognition of the scientific community's and public's growing awareness of the dangers of chlorine and its by-products. Chlorine is a halogen and it therefore forms extremely stable organo-chlorines, including tetrachloro-dibenzo-p-dioxin, (2,3,7,8-TCDD). This is the dioxin most discussed in the media. According to a three-year U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, "reproductive and immune system disorder, cancer, and chloracne, a serious skin condition, may result from even low exposures" to dioxins. Furthermore, 2,3,7,8,-TCDD is the most dangerous of these dioxins. It seems that chlorine is a dangerous chemical which produces deadly substances. These substances tend not to break down in the environment and they pose a special threat to creatures with fatty tissues.

Organo-chlorines are exceedingly dangerous to living creatures because they are usually hydrophobic lipophilic. This means that they are repelled by water molecules and attracted to fat. They gravitate toward organisms that have fat cells and bio-accumulate their way up the food chain. Due to the reproductive harm that they cause and their longevity, organo-chlorines are even more dangerous to the children of people who are exposed than to the people themselves. Industries that use chlorine are in general agreement that chlorine has both short and long term health risks. Given a safer, economically viable alternative most industries would avoid the use of chlorine altogether. The Samoa Mill seems to have tapped into just such an alternative.

Role of Chlorine in Pulp production

How did chlorine factor into pulp production at the Samoa Mill and how did they eliminate it from that process? L-P's Samoa Mill is a kraft pulp mill. This means that they produce pulp fibers which are known for their length and strength. The other chemical pulping process in wide use is called sulfite pulping, this also involves chlorine bleaching but produces a different quality paper than the Samoa Mill. Sulfite pulping is used to make toilet paper and other weaker fiber papers, kraft pulp is used to make the high quality writing paper we all know and love. The kraft pulp is a more refined product; therefore, the process is more involved.

The kraft pulping process essentially separates wood into two components; cellulose and lignin. The cellulose is used to make a pulp, the lignin is just a by-product which holds the wood together. The lignin is first dissolved in an-aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium sulfide (Na2S); the product of this process is called brown stock. Oxygen delignification uses an oxidation-reduction reaction to further break down and remove the lignin. The bleaching process does the final whitening. Every kraft mill in the country except one uses chlorine for the bleaching process.

Eliminating Chlorine

In January, 1994 the Samoa Mill became the only North American kraft pulp mill to produce bleached pulp without the use of chlorine or chlorine compounds. The mill instead uses various combinations of oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, and sodium hydroxide. To anyone who has had any chemistry the difference is clear. Organo-chlorines adhere to fat cells and do damage to us and to our children; hydrogen-peroxide reduces to water and oxygen.

The Samoa Mill's move to a TCF bleaching process significantly reduced its harmful discharge into the environment and therefore reduced the risks to the many surfers and other organisms that use the north jetty area. Glenn Stockwell now surfs the North Jetty regularly and states the water lacks the stench from days of yore, and that he no longer experiences the symptoms that he used to. There are rumors of people still experiencing some of the symptoms, but according to Stockwell this is an old sewage line. Perhaps this sewage line could be a future project for the HAF. Stockwell went on to say that some dolphins had been enticed to play in the newly clean surf one day he was out there. The decision to go TCF has given Flipper cause to revel. The move also opens a window of opportunity to utilize even more innovative technology in dealing with the by-products of paper making. Researchers at the mill are in the process of designing systems to recycle all of the water from the bleach phase of the pulping process. The bleach effluent from pulp mills has poisoned many rivers. The idea that such a pernicious element can now be totally eliminated from the environment is encouraging.

The fact that the mill has chosen to go chlorine free allows them to entertain the idea of closing the cycle on their bleaching process. Chlorine is too corrosive to contain within the system. They are presented with a unique, exciting opportunity. There are currently no pulp mills in the world that recycle 100% of the bleach effluent. Some mills in Scandinavia claim to be close to and the Samoa Mill currently recycles 70%, but none have gone all the way. With help from the $68,000 from the surfrider's suit, L-P is working together with Dr. Lou Edwards, from the University of Idaho, toward this goal. The technical problems in the research are:

The engineers still need to solve some of these problems, but expect the project to move along according to schedule. Officials at the mill plan to implement the closed bleach cycle within the next 18 months.
The Samoa Mill has managed to integrate sound environmental practice with a high quality product. The paper produced at the Samoa Mill is slightly more expensive than standard typing paper but is a better quality paper. Some of the cost difference is due to a difference in volume production of the TCF paper as opposed to the chlorine paper. Some of the difference is also due to the fact that nearest place to turn the TCF pulp into paper is located on the east coast. These cost differences also reflect the fact that paper consumers are not made to pay for the full environmental effects of chlorine paper. In spite of this, the differences are expected to dissipate as more pulp mills go TCF. The TCF technology seems to represent a rare confluence between economic and environmental viability.
The beauty of engineering lies in the ability to recognize natural patterns and forces and to utilize these patterns in our human processes. The Samoa Mill recognized the detrimental effects that the mill was having upon the immediate environment and is continuing to make improvements. The improvements utilize scientific knowledge about chemicals in the environment. They are producing a high quality pulp by a more and more benign process. The difference in whiteness between the chlorine and hydrogen peroxide bleached paper is discernible only upon close comparison. The difference in our ocean is discernible from miles or generations away.

This article was written for Humboldt State University's
ERE Messenger. The article was written in the Fall of 1995
by Jesse Clark who is an Environemental Engineering student
at Humboldt State University

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