Planning for Fenholloway Recovery Underway

TALLAHASSEE-A collaborative effort designed to improve the long-term quality of the Fenholloway River has been launched by industry, regulatory agencies and environmental interest groups. The project, which the participants are calling the Fenholloway River Evaluation Initiative, is designed to evaluate changes that could be implemented by Buckeye Florida L.P., the major source of wastewater discharge into the river. If successful, the Initiative would result in a permit instituting technically and economically viable changes that would allow the Fenholloway to meet its designated use as a fishable, swimmable river.

Buckeye Florida L.P. operates a dissolving and bleached paper grade Kraft pulp mill in Taylor County, Florida, which discharges an average of 46 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into the Fenholloway River. The River was legally designated as an industrial use river in 1947 to help attract industry to the region. Based on an improvement plan developed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and agreed to by Buckeye, it was redesignated as a fishable, swimmable stream in 1997. FDEP developed a proposed discharge permit for the Buckeye mill on August 1, 1997, which called for in-mill process changes, along with the construction of a pipeline and an aeration facility to move the point of discharge to lower portions of the Fenholloway River where the river flow levels are higher. The proposed final permit has been the subject of objections and has yet to be implemented. Today the mill is operating under an administratively continued permit.

In 2001, the Clean Water Network (CWN) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) approached the FDEP, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Buckeye with an interest in evaluating the feasibility of a wetlands treatment and disposal system, together with some additional mill improvements, as a means of achieving compliance with water quality standards in the river. Initial discussions with FDEP, USEPA, CWN, NRDC, and Buckeye were conducted in May of 2001. The Fenholloway River Evaluation Initiative was launched as a result of that meeting.

The objective of this initiative is to examine the technical and economic feasibility of additional manufacturing process changes, wastewater treatment system changes, and/or wetlands treatment alternatives for the Buckeye mill. If successful, the final result will be the issuance of a discharge permit that:

• provides an economically and technologically viable means for the mill to further improve the quality of the wastewater being discharged;

• complies with applicable laws and regulations; and,

• meets fishable and swimable water quality standards in the Fenholloway River.