Georgia-Pacific Pipeline NOT a Solution

[riverkeepered]

Over 150 people packed the house on Thursday for a public forum regarding the pipeline proposed by Georgia-Pacific (GP) to divert its polluted wastewater into the middle of the St. Johns River. 

Two pulp and paper industry experts, Dr. Bob Hayes and Dr. Lucinda Sonnenberg, spoke about why the pipeline will not resolve the pollution problems at GP's Palatka paper mill.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) hired Dr. Sonnenberg, a highly-regarded chemist, to provide expertise that was needed to help DEP evaluate various technical documents, including a GP-funded study by Brown and Caldwell that has been used to justify the pipeline. 

St. Johns Riverkeeper hired Dr. Hayes, a chemical engineer, to do a peer review of the Brown and Caldwell study.  Hayes found significant technical errors in the Brown and Caldwell study and recommends a comprehensive chemical engineering study of the mill and its entire waste stream.  He uses a MRI analogy, suggesting that a doctor wants to know what is going on inside the body and better understand the source of the ailment before prescribing a treatment. 

Hayes, has over 50 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry, and has identified and worked on numerous mills that have solved their wastewater pollution problems with a variety of alternative strategies.   So, we know there are alternatives that have worked and could work for GP, but until the "MRI" is done, it is not feasible to select the best option for GP. 

Also, DEP and GP continue to ignore is the problem with dioxin.  In 2008, samples found elevated levels of dioxin that exceeded EPA safe levels.  While most experts, including those at DEP, have identified GP's treatment ponds as a probable source of the dioxin problem, nothing has been done to adequately address it.

While Dr. Sonnenberg and Dr. Hayes don't agree on everything, they both independently came to the same conclusion.  They both concur that more information is needed to thoroughly understand and pinpoint the sources of GP's pollution problems and to sufficiently identify and evaluate all of the alternatives to the pipeline that may exist.   

Two well-qualified experts have independently raised serious questions and concerns that must be resolved before proceeding to a permit decision and a strategy to meet GP's pollution problems.  This especially pertains to Dr. Sonnenberg's report, which DEP commissioned to help them sufficiently evaluate the efficacy of the pipeline and the permit.   Unfortunately, DEP was apparently ready to issue the discharge permit earlier this year, well before Dr. Sonnenberg's final report was ever completed. 

Here is First Coast News coverage of last night's public forum.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/210942/3/St-Johns-Riverkeeper-Fights-Georgia-Pacific-Pipeline

For more information about this issue, visit http://www.cleanergp.com/.

[Garden guy]

the solution to pollution is'nt always dilution....the science is'nt there...these people only care about money and should be in jail for the damge done to our lands...

[ChriswUfGator]

Dioxin is nasty stuff

[Gators312]

Better than what was proposed two years ago, but like the Riverkeeper said It's still a pipe discharging into the river.

The permit is a “big win for the river” because it contains some requirements above and beyond what state and federal environmental regulations can mandate, state Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard said Thursday.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-10-04/story/state-will-issue-permit-georgia-pacific-wastewater-piped-st-johns-river#ixzz28QpePsyK

[copperfiend]

These types of situations is why the Koch Brothers buy politicians.

[spuwho]

Ionic Charge Titration is typically used to remove particulate from waste water generated by pulp plants like Georgia Pacific. There is a company in South Africa that has pioneered the use of this technology and has used it in pulp plants around the world. (Brazil, Sweden, others)

http://www.lechintech.com/