Industries: Paper Mills

I come from a town that is based upon paper mills, Weyerhauser, Fiber, and more are all in Longview, WA. I know of a few other paper mills that border the Columbia river, in the towns of Camas, WA, and Lewiston, ID. “Paper mills use cellulose fibers to create pulp which is then formed into paper. To do this a bleaching process is used. The mills are starting to use “total Chlorine-free” (TCF) to bleach the paper, this process is more economically friendly”[1]. The previous method was to use chlorine or hydrogen peroxide to bleach the pulp to a whiter content. Consumers of the products want higher brightness scale, meaning whiter products, the paper mills are forced to bleach their materials as much as possible. While the new TCF methods are reusable bleaching products, the old method of reusing chlorine was not as reuseable. “The most common wastes discharged from this process are dioxin and chlorine compounds”[3].

Works read while compiling above information:

[1] www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/gui_pulp_WB/$FILE/pulp_PPAH.pdf

[2] http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10/paper-making-9.shtml

[3] http://library.thinkquest.org/27034/paper.html

Poisonous Fish

In the northern Columbia River section referred to as Lake Roosevelt, which is the 130 mile stretch of Columbia River that is located behind Grand Coulee Dam, there are toxins in the water. The toxins have come from smelters in Canada, and through various mining operations that have scoured the countryside. Some of the mining practices used mercury to remove gold. This creates waste of mercury, cadmium, zinc and pesticides that are discharged into the Columbia River. While eating large concentrations of fish a month, approximately 48 fish a month, various health risks may occur. Those are to be weaker immune system, liver problems, and stunted development. The risk of getting cancer is approximately 50 times higher than that of a general consumer who eats fish approximately once a month.

All of the above information is found at the US EPA website:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/oea.nsf/0/C3A9164ED269353788256C09005D36B7

Columbia River Pollution

I lived along the Columbia River for 18 years of my life, it is disgusting. Tighter regulations on industrial mills must be enacted to ensure safer drinking water, safer recreational areas, and safer fish to eat. This issue is important to address for the residents of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. The residents of those areas are either responsible for what is happening or affected by the pollution being pumped into the river.