JAY – Verso Paper acknowledged its Androscoggin Mill violated town and state water discharge and landfill licenses and has either made changes or is in the process of making them, a spokesman said.

Jay environmental Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring issued Verso three compliance orders this month for violations of its permits under the town’s Environmental Control and Improvement Ordinance for incidents between August 2007 and Jan. 9.

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a letter of warning and a notice of violation for two of the same incidents.

In some instances the town’s regulations are stricter than the state’s and the mill is required to report to both.

“We are constantly working with the town and DEP to be sure to report these exceedences,” Verso spokesman Bill Cohen said. “We had those incidents happen and we learned from them. Now we’ll put in place procedures and inspections. From each of these, we learn either to change how we do things or make improvements toward them in the future.”

There is heightened focus on that mill because of a wastewater discharge permit and even a minimal incident comes to the forefront, he said.

“But to the credit of workers there, we continue to improve our environment and when we run into something that isn’t perfect, we recognize it and fix it,” Cohen said.

The goal is to have no events, he said.

The Androscoggin Mill is the only one in Maine covered by town, state and federal environmental regulations.

There are three stages of compliance action at the state level, DEP environmental specialist Beth DeHaas said. A consent agreement is the highest degree, followed by a notice of violation and a letter of warning.

The state issued a Notice of Violation and the town a consent agreement for a Nov. 6 leak of an estimated 2,400 gallons of activated sludge, which equates to about 80 pounds of solids, that traveled over the ground and entered Allen Brook, Ring said.

The mill took immediate action on repairs and committed to a long-term plan to prevent recurrence of line failure, she said.

The state requested that Verso move forward as quickly as possible to complete any additional investigations and to repair the line.

After the leak, mill staff started to examine the line every four hours, DeHaas said, and put together a procedure to follow to prevent further violations.

The line is 37 years old and was installed when the treatment plant was put in, she said.

Both Ring and DeHaas said taking everything into consideration, the impact was minimal.

In a second matter, in two instances the mill’s treated effluent discharge increased the Androscoggin River temperature by less than one-tenth of a degree in August and September, Ring said. The state issued a Letter of Warning and the town issued a compliance order for violations of wastewater discharge licenses.

“Believe it or not, temperature is considered a pollutant,” DeHaas said, and there is a limit on it.

The company is required to submit a detailed plan to monitor temperature and prevent future violations to both entities by Feb. 15.

After two leaks were discovered by mill staff at the company’s 50-acre-plus landfill, with the majority closed, Verso is working to prevent future leaks.

The leaks happened because of heavy rain and/or melting snow and some untreated storm water discharge leached from the landfill in separate areas, Ring said.

DeHaas and Linda Butler, a project manager with DEP, both said they were satisfied with the action the mill took and preventative measures it plans. The mill has agreed to adhere to a town’ compliance order.