JAY – Verso Paper plans to upgrade a system that burns sulfur gases emitted during the kraft pulping process. While the work is being done, there is a potential for an odor of rotten eggs to be emitted from the mill.

Mill officials, when it was International Paper, and town leaders worked together in the 1990s to put the anti-pollution system in place to reduce the odor by collecting and burning the gases, well ahead of the federal Environmental Protection Agency putting a time frame on equipment installation to improve air emissions, town and mill officials said.

The system being upgraded collects odorous gases and burns them to reduce emissions, Environmental Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring said.

Once the upgrade is complete, more gases will be collected and burned to meet new federal regulations.

The Planning Board previously approved the project, Ring said.

The work is expected to be complete within a month of when the system goes down in either late September or early October.

Verso Paper Environmental Manager Tom Saviello said the company put in the system because of Jay’s rules under its Environmental Control and Improvement Ordinance.

The two parties worked together to find a solution to eliminate the odors produced during the paper-making process, he said.

There will be significant downtime of the system when the final switch is made, he said. Odors are likely to be strongest then.

The equipment being upgraded burns high-volume, low-concentration sulfur-type gases that come from the pulp washer system, digester and the cooking system, Saviello said.

The gases also are burned in the lime kiln and that process won’t be interrupted, Saviello said.

The new system will collect some of the few gases that are not now collected, he said.

“The air is very good now and will continue to get better,” Saviello said.

As the equipment is being worked on, he said, there is a potential that someone might smell the rotten egg odor but it is not dangerous.

“We really worked hard” to improve the emissions, he said.

“Citizens shouldn’t have to smell it and we want to keep it under control,” Saviello said.