State moving against Paper Mill

[JABIII]

Stinking SC paper mill with tainted waste pits the focus of state pollution probe

BY SAMMY FRETWELL
MARCH 12, 2022

State regulators are preparing to take enforcement action against a South Carolina paper mill that has generated tens of thousands of odor complaints during the past year and raised concerns about the plant’s potential to pollute the Catawba River. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said Friday it is pursuing a water pollution case against the New-Indy Catawba LLC mill, a York County facility that began releasing what area residents said were unusually noxious odors from the plant early in 2021. State Sen. Michael Johnson, a York County Republican, said DHEC staff members told him during a meeting Thursday that the wastewater case is in its final stages.

New-Indy has a series of aging waste lagoons that lie close to the Catawba River, a drinking water source for Chester and some communities downstream. The big river, popular with anglers and boaters, runs from above Charlotte through central South Carolina to Lake Wateree just north of Columbia. But some of the company’s waste lagoons contain mounds of poisoned sludge, and they have shown signs of leakage, The State reported in January. Among the toxic materials in the lagoons is dioxin, a highly dangerous material that can cause cancer, The State reported.

Read more at: https://www.thestate.com/news/local/...#storylink=cpy

[BuckyTownsend]

Couple falsehoods in that article. The consent order with the EPA is online and public. They busted them for H2S, but there’s no ambient air quality standard for H2S… Makes me think the fine was cheaper than lawyers defending against government agency.

[codeman216]

Typical Karen BS. Let’s build in this neighborhood downwind from that paper mill that’s been there for 70 years. We’ll just raise hell about the smell and try to get it shut down.


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[JBtflo]

I've got no problem with the smell, that's expected when moving next to a paper mill. I'm less enthusiastic about crap from the paper mill flowing into the Catawba.

[scatter shot]

My grandfather worked in a paper mill. He used to call it the smell of money.

[BuckyTownsend]

Biological waste water treatment systems will fill up over time and need to be dredged to maintain the retention time that allows the biological treatment process to take place. When there’s a system as old as that one, I’d imagine they probably started dredging out the solids that settled over the years. That process smells about as bad as it gets. I do know that facility recently converted to linerboard over the bleached paper that is in far less demand these days. Removing the chlorine dioxide bleaching process will essentially cut out the carry over of dioxin byproducts of bleaching systems. There’s no regulation on smell, but if you get enough uppity folks calling and complaining your regulatory agencies will visit and will find something wrong so they can say what a good job they’re doing. This story is a good one to take with several grains of salt.

[jasonw]

Driving by the paper mill is one of the best places to dispose of a fart if you have been holding it in on a family trip. Cover scent and it works.

[smitch320]

Smells like money

[codeman216]

My grandfather worked in a paper mill. He used to call it the smell of money.

My grandfather and father both retired from Bowater. They always called it the smell of money and it used to be fun to me to call it that going by on a school bus for a field trip or something like that.


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[scatter shot]

Driving by the paper mill is one of the best places to dispose of a fart if you have been holding it in on a family trip. Cover scent and it works.

It's funny you say that. I used to spend summers with my grandad. One summer he took us upstate to see family and every once in awhile I'd get a whiff of the paper mill while we was in the car. Apparently the smell from the mill was so strong it permeated everything including his gastrointestinal system. He was farting and it smelled just like the mill.

Hell of a memory.

[wcrites307]

I actually am a contractor at this very mill. I have worked here for over 25 years, in fact I am sitting right beside one of the retention ponds as I type. There is little to no smell on most days. on really muggy or foggy days there is some, but not the sulpher smell there use to be. New methods and tech have about eliminated that .

[willyworm]

Wait, Lake Wateree is 'just north' of Columbia?