International Paper Co.’s Cantonment
Mill, just north of Pensacola,
FL, has initiated a major project
for its site. The pulp and paper
operation was built along a small
stream known as Elevenmile
Creek and has been operating since the
1940s. The discharge from plant operations
represents perhaps 95% of the flow
at the headwaters of the creek, according
to Mike Steltenkamp, the mill’s environment,
health, and safety manager. Defined
by numerous water standards, this creek
is classified as a Class 3 water body by the
State of Florida.
“Since we dominate the flow of this
creek, we are continually bumping up
against some of those parameters and have
difficulty in meeting a few of them,” says
Steltenkamp. “We have a project pending
to upgrade our treatment system and to
redirect flow out of the creek completely.
The 22 million gallons of effluent per day
will be taken from this current discharge
point, be highly treated and then distributed
over 1,500 acres of company-owned
land. In doing so, International Paper will
restore what’s now a pine plantation to a
diverse forested wetland.”
International Paper currently owns that
land, which over the years had been altered
through use of a wide variety of purposes
under multiple owners, including agricultural
and timbering activities. “There is
evidence from the railroad ties of railroad
activity in the area,” says Steltenkamp.
“Also there has clearly been hauling of not
just timber, but naval stores, and sheep and
cattle grazing. The location has also been
drained of a vast quantity of water over the
years.”
International Paper’s intention is to take
its treated effluent, distribute it
over the 1,500 acres of land, and
replant the types of typical bottomland
hardwood tree species that would
have been there originally in that particular
type of wetland estuary environment. The
re-establishment of this forested wetland
will create an ecosystem long missing,
and also create a polishing treatment area
in which to refine the effluent before the
water reaches Perdido Bay, at the Florida-
Alabama line.
“This truly seems like a win-win situation
for everyone involved,” says Steltenkamp.
“We are partnering with the local
utility company, Emerald Coast Utilities
Authority, (ECUA), and will help them with
the new wastewater treatment facility they
want to build in this county. After they
build the new facility, one of the outlets
for their treated effluent will be to redirect
some of the flow to the IP mill. This flow
will potentially provide a beneficial reuse
within our process.”
Such an activity has never been done
before to any large degree, according to
Steltenkamp, especially for the grades of
paper the company produces. But enough
studies and analysis have been done to give
IP the confidence that at some level such a
procedure is possible. “We’re not going to
replace 22 million gallons; but we might replace
up to five million,” says Steltenkamp.
“We don’t know exactly how far we can go
but have worked out an agreement with
ECUA to take some of that effluent, once
the facility is built, and then begin to learn
how to reuse some of it.
“The wetlands are capable of handling
the effluent volume from the mill,” says
Steltenkamp.
“The Florida Department of Environmental
Protection
was
intimately
involved in
framing up this
project in the
early conceptual
stages. They‘re the
ones that actually
brought us to the table
with ECUA, knowing
what we wanted to accomplish
as well as knowing
what ECUA wanted to
accomplish with their growth
expectations. DEP was very
instrumental in putting the
two of us together to talk about
whether there was an opportunity
for synergy.”
Wade Nutter and Associates in
Athens, GA, is the lead consulting
and design firm on the forested wetlands
project. All of the engineering and design
work on the project has been completed. “I’m very optimistic about this project, just
uncertain as to which month in summer of
2006 we will be proceeding,” says Steltenkamp.
“The DEP has noticed their intent
to issue the permit, and EPA has concurred,
and we believe the community values this
project very much. There is a great deal of support
in
this, but
every paper
mill has its critics.
We need to
address those issues
and concerns and have
been trying to do that.”
The challenge to the permit
by a property owner near
the wetlands is being resolved
through regulatory administrative
processes. Steltenkamp expects this
challenge will be resolved soon, probably
as early as September 2006.
Construction will start as soon as
the permit is issued. The total time of installation
for the entire project including
the pipeline, wetlands and the treatment
system upgrades has been earmarked at approximately
two years. Treatment system
upgrades will probably be complete within
the first year. Wetlands will be completed
within the first year and a half, and the 10-
mile pipeline section of the work will take
the longest amount of time.
The company has already
come a long way in improving
its environmental performance.
Treatment systems
have been upgraded and their
loads have been reduced. In the
mid-1990s, IP reconfigured its
bleaching process, eliminating
the use of molecular chlorine
as a primary bleaching agent.
“We’ve replaced chlorine with
oxygen, hydrogen peroxide,
and a chlorine dioxide,” says
Steltenkamp.
IP’s effluent contains
enough salts to prevent it
from meeting the freshwater
quality standard for specific
conductance when discharged
into Elevenmile Creek, a small
freshwater stream in the area. “This has
been one of our biggest challenges,” says
Steltenkamp. “By getting out of this creek
and going to a wetland, which borders
a marine environment, the salt content
becomes almost a moot point. In fact,
the Perdido
Bay and
lower portions of
Elevenmile Creek have a
specific conductance significantly
greater than found in the
mill’s treated effluent. By comparison
to marine waters, our effluent is not really
salty, but as the dominant flow into a
freshwater creek it will make it somewhat
brackish.”
The effluent produced contains salts
normally found in seawater: sodium chloride,
sodium sulfate and sodium carbonate.
At present, the 1,500-acre site is used
as a pine plantation area. It is planted and
harvested on a regular basis. International
Paper’s project will reconfigure this site by
restoring the hydrology plant species that
existed on the site decades ago. “The water
with some nutrients we distribute will be of
value to those trees and plants. But much
of the water and salts will eventually work
their way into a completely saltwater environment,”
says Steltenkamp.
 |
| The new wastewater treatment system at International Paper Co.’s Cantonment Mill, near Pensacola, FL, will transform a pine plantation into a natural wetland. |
The project also involves an upgrade to
an existing treatment system, specifically,
converting an aeration stabilization basin
to an activated sludge system. Steltenkamp
believes the new system will be more robust
and more efficient. It will include both
primary and secondary clarification to
remove solids. Nitrogen and phosphorous
are added to the pond to promote biological
removal of biological oxygen demand
(BOD).
The effluent from this pond currently
goes to a second pond, where the organisms
precipitate out. These organisms break
down over time and release the nutrients
they’d used to grow on. That extra nutrient
buildup is what IP is trying to control
through this secondary clarification; those
solids are taken and recycled back into the
process so there won’t be the release of the
nitrogen and phosphorous as before.
A polishing pond will be used for
supplemental treatment in the event that
unforeseen circumstances require the addition
of more chemicals at the mill. After
this final pond, the effluent will go through
a 10-mile long, 48-inch diameter pipeline
to the wetlands, where it will be distributed. “Even though not much nitrogen and
phosphorous will be present in the effluent,
the residual nitrogen and phosphorous is
available for uptake by the vegetation in
the wetlands,” says Steltenkamp. “Once
delivered to the wetland the effluent will
be distributed a mile and a quarter east to
west before it flows south.”
The wetland will contain four berms to
help manage the flow uniformly through
the site. Each berm will enable the water
to flow into the next layer as water builds
up. The berms have existed for some time
as a result of earlier tree-harvesting activities,
grazing activities, road-building and
railroad lines previously in place. IP will be
taking advantage of the roads through the
marshy area by reconfiguring them to serve
as berms.
As part of IP’s permit, the company will
monitor the entire forested wetland area
and record and report how everything is
proceeding. In addition to tree growth and
habitat improvement, water quality will
be measured on a daily basis. Also part of
the permitting is a requirement to measure
the effluent qualities before it goes into the
pipeline, at which point
it must meet all the water
quality parameters. The
water going through the
wetlands will be an improvement
in quality even
beyond that.
The pipeline and the
preparation of the wetland
will take place simultaneously.
Thousands of trees,
such as different varieties
of cypress, cedar, and oaks,
are now being planted
there. These will already
have a good start when the
project is completed.
The system is especially
designed so that the hardwood
wetland will have a
minimum of manmade structures present.
The goal is to make this area seem as natural
an environment as possible. When the
hardwoods reach harvestable age it will be
possible to remove a portion of them and
maintain this ecosystem in equilibrium.
“We’ve learned from ECUA on this,
as they already have their own natural
wetlands being used for their domestic
wastewater elsewhere,” says Steltenkamp.
“By partnering with them we’re able to apply
what we’ve learned. IP has constructed
wetlands before, but this one will be made
to resemble what was once naturally in
place there.”
The project proposal involves a publicprivate
partnership, with ECUA having
20% of the partnership and IP 80% in the
overall project. This type of partnership is
relatively new, according to Steve Sorrell,
executive director of ECUA. “This is cutting-
edge technology in which we’ve been
able to work with private industry as well
and resolve all our issues so that it’s a winwin
situation for both of us,” says Sorrell.
“In that respect it is brand-new.”
ECUA will be using the wetlands for depositing
five million gallons of wastewater
per day. This will be Advanced Wastewater
Treatment (AWT) standard wastewater effluent
pumped through a pipeline from
the wastewater treatment plant ECUA is
going to be constructing. AWT standard
wastewater is virtually the highest level that
can be reached for wastewater effluent; the
water being deposited will be cleaner than
any of the water in the bays and rivers in
the region, according to Sorrell.
ECUA first became involved in the project
after IP started to have concerns about
meeting the permit standards in the disposal
of effluent into the creek. “We needed
effluent disposal for the construction of a
new wastewater treatment plant,” says Sorrell.
“Therefore the planning process was
implemented knowing that at some point
we would need an effluent disposal site and
knowing as well, that International Paper
needed a similar site for their operations.
We got together and negotiated a contract
with the blessing of the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection.
“I think the environmentalists will win
in this because of the disposal methodology
that is going to be used. It’s going to
be a win-win situation across the board for
everyone involved—a strong reason why
Florida DEP has supported it all along.”
Opposition to the plan comes from a
small active local grassroots organization
called “The Friends of Perdido Bay.” They
are concerned about any kind of contamination
into Perdido Bay Basin, according to
Sorrell. “They are not objecting to what the
ECUA will be disposing there as much as
what IP will release into the wetlands,” says
Sorrell. “There are all kinds of arguments
about the different levels of chemicals that
are to be disposed of in the bay, versus the
wetlands. But I don’t think that any kind
of contamination or disposal in Perdido
Bay is even going to be an issue. It is actually
going to be a positive element for
the entire environment because this is the
proper way of disposing of these things.”
Those offering resistance to the project
are individuals with homes in the
bay area. Most of them have waterfront
homes, and their primary
concern is protection
of the bay.
“But this project will
still make the situation
much better,” says Sorrell.
“What this group
would prefer, though, is
absolutely no discharge
from IP to the wetlands
or to Perdido Bay. Such
an action would put
hundreds of employees
in the area out of work
as well as closing down a
major industrial site in the
region, one of its biggest and
best-paying employers. The
economic impact on Escambia
County would be severe. The
ECUA’s not in favor of that. I don’t
think anyone in the area is, other than the
people trying to protect the Perdido Bay at
all costs.”
ECUA is in the process of building a
new wastewater treatment plant. They are
also in the process of acquiring property
for that purpose. At first there were discussions
about that plant being situated near
the mill. That has changed somewhat with
subsequent detailed studies. It is now going
to be located in a different area, although it
will still use some of IP’s property and continue
to use the wetlands for effluent disposal.
“Everything is still the same as it was
under the original plan,” says Sorrell. “Yet
it’s somewhat different, as the wastewater
treatment plant won’t be on the same site
as the mill. That was strictly an economics
issue.”
The new technology used by ECUA will
require less manpower to operate the new
plant than is currently being used. There
will be less equipment to maintain and the
processes will be more state-of-the-art. The
people employed now at the plant will be
trained and moved to perform some of the
maintenance functions on the collection
and transmission system, where there will
be a need for more help. “This will be a
beneficial situation for our workers, too,”
says Sorrell. “There are a lot of synergies
associated with this new plant, including
emergency power and steam in addition to
waste treatment. We will be training our
people and moving them to areas where we
can use their help. Everyone will still have a
job, and we will move to a point where we
will become an even more efficient organization.”
These workers will be moved to the lift
station maintenance side of operations
where they will be doing O&M
work on the collection and
transmission system. ECUA
has hundreds and hundreds
of miles of pipe to maintain
and in excess of 320
large pumping stations,
also referred to as lift
stations. “We can use
all the help we can get
to maintain those efficiently,”
says Sorrell.
“We’re going to move
those extra employees
over to be able help us
out there.”
ECUA is still going
through some of the preliminary
engineering. A
multi-stage nutrient removal
process will be used as well as
some type of system to dry the
sludge into a palletized form so that it
may be used for fertilization applications
through lawn or even agricultural fertilizer.
Though this technology has existed
for some time, it is new in this area of the
United States. “This product will be able to
be used for virtually anything,” says Sorrell.
“We will sell the palletized sludge to whoever
the highest bidder is, and they will be
able to use it for agricultural purposes.”
This product serves as a very good soil
amendment product, similar to Milorganite,
but Sorrell states it will be an even
higher-quality product than that. “A local
chemist has done some comparisons of the
product ECUA will produce and Milorganite.
His results indicate that the product
coming from ECUA will be much better. This improved product will be due to the
way they plan on processing this substance.
“We’ll be using the latest and best technology
possible,” says Sorrell. “Milorganite
has been around for a long while. It’s not
necessarily a fertilizer as much as a soil
amender, excellent for growing crops or
even for sod. Our product will also have
considerable value as a deer repellent.”
After working with the local university,
ECUA has tried to keep in check the
overabundance of deer and the damage
they cause across the state. The trace of a
human scent in the product serves to repel
deer for a limited period of time.
Writer PETER HILDEBRANDT specializes in science and engineering topics.
OW - July/August 2006 |
