River pipe postponed until dioxin level drops Test: Toxin levels top federal limits

River pipe postponed until dioxin level drops

Test: Toxin levels top federal limits

By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 06/02/09

Georgia-Pacific's paper plant in Palatka will not be allowed to build its proposed new 40-million-gallons-per-day pipeline into the middle of the St. Johns River until the company lowers its discharge of dioxin, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said Monday.

A six-page letter from DEP's Northeast District Director Gregory J. Strong lists other corrective actions the company must complete before the agency will consider the pipeline permit.

"We have new information as a result of the high-volume sampling conducted last year," Strong said Monday afternoon.

In February 2008, samples were taken of Georgia Pacific's discharge into the St. Johns River and Rice Creek.

The effluent was analyzed using a new and more sensitive method. The results released in February 2009 concluded that it contained several times more dioxin than federal law allows.

The EPA report said the maximum permitted level is 0.014 parts per quadrillion, but one sample contained 0.077, five times the maximum permitted level, and the second 0.042 parts per quadrillion, three times the maximum permitted level.

Strong admitted the concentrations were "ultra-low" and equivalent to "two seconds in the span of 32 million years."

The company challenged this test as experimental and not commonly used.

Jeremy Alexander, spokesman for Georgia-Pacific, said this new test "is not an approved method for measuring dioxin."

He said Georgia-Pacific measures its own dioxin levels and reported "none detected," he said. "The importance or significance of dioxin for humans is through the consumption of fish. We test fish from Rice Creek and the levels are well below the allowed threshold."

Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida in Tallahassee, said earlier this year that the new test is more reliable and tests 1,000 liters and particulates, not one liter of liquid like the current test.

Dioxin is released into the environment by sources other than paper bleaching. About 80 percent comes from coal-fired utilities, municipal waste incinerators, metal smelting, land application of sewage, burning treated wood and burning trash in barrels.

Strong said this is an opportunity for Georgia-Pacific to go back and revisit its waste water effluent.

"The high-volume sampling technique is relatively cutting edge and we have a high level of confidence in it," he said. "It evaluates dioxin in solid form."

Strong would like the company to investigate whether the high levels detected come from solids that pre-dated the company's $200 million in improvements to the plant's scrubbing system.

In a 2002 administrative order, Strong said, the company was required to do a number of improvements.

His letter asked Georgia-Pacific for additional actions such as:

* Submitting reports identifying all spills and leaks and detailing improvements the company will make.

* Reinstitute monitoring of Rice Creek for a year.

* Sample existing sediments to determine if they are a source of dioxin.

* Pay the DEP to conduct another water sampling by Dec. 1.

* Complete a study on the company's wastewater treatment system targeted at reducing particulates, color and iron.

Strong said his agency is operating within the bounds of the administrative order.

"We want to be cautious, careful and thorough in our evaluation of effluent," he said.

Alexander said the company will respond appropriately.

"We're going to work with the DEP cooperatively to comply with all requirements as we move forward," he said.

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