JAY – International Paper has notified Wausau Paper that the company will terminate the agreement it has to treat the Otis mill’s wastewater in Dec. 16, 2010.
With IP’s No. 1 paper machine coming back online to make rolled pulp and the company’s state wastewater treatment license in limbo, IP wants to protect the mill’s viability for future years.
The 1997 wastewater treatment agreement between the two mills requires IP to give a five-year notice prior to terminating the agreement, IP spokesman Bill Cohen said Thursday. IP sent the notice Dec. 16.
The Otis paper mill, owned by Wausau Paper, is on the Livermore Falls/Jay line, downriver of the IP mill in Jay and pays taxes to both towns. It was owned and operated by IP from 1898 to the mid-1900s. Both mills sit on the banks of the Androscoggin River.
The Otis mill, which produces specialty paper and masking tape, does not have its own wastewater treatment plant on site to treat its paper-making effluent, Kara Kurtenbach, director of environmental affairs for Wausau Paper, said Thursday from corporate headquarters in Wisconsin.
Wausau Paper’s sanitary waste goes through the town’s sewer system and is treated at the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The company’s paper-making effluent is sent to IP through a pipeline system in the Androscoggin River.
“We need to review our options to see what they are,” Kurtenbach said. “Certainly we need a place to treat our effluent.”
IP treats 3 million gallons a day of wastewater from the Otis mill, Cohen said.
IP’s discharge license that had been issued by the state and then voided last year after an environmental group appealed it, would have provided stabilization to both IP and Wausau paper mills, Cohen said.
“When this (licensing issue) turned political, the uncertainty dictated that we look at all the long-term scenarios with operations of our mill and the potential negative impact of any license changes. While we do not want or enjoy sending that type of letter, we saw no other way based on a five-year table,” Cohen said.
Once IP can resolve the uncertainties associated with its wastewater license, the company may then re-evaluate its decision to terminate the waste-treatment agreement, Cohen said.
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