RUMFORD — About 15,600 gallons of hot water and pulp fiber were accidentally discharged from the Catalyst Paper mill into the Androscoggin River on Thursday afternoon, mill spokesman Tony Lyons said.
Lyons said a malfunctioning meter that measures water clarity allowed water to be released into the river when it should have remained within the mill’s treatment facilities.
“This was non-contact cooling water that typically goes into this particular sewer, but in this case it had come into contact with some paper fiber and normally when it goes into the sewer there is a turbidity meter that at the point of discharge determines whether it is clear water or not clear water,” Lyons said. “The turbidity meter in actuality was not functioning so it actually discharged this water with paper fiber in it to the river.”
Lyons said the mill notified the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the agency determined the spill was “non-emergency” in nature.
He said the mill is licensed by the DEP to discharge up to 30 million gallons of treated water a day into the Androscoggin.
The water that was released was used in the papermaking process and had contact with the chemicals used in that process, Lyons said. He said he didn’t think there was any danger to the general public, to animals or to drinking water.
“It’s basically water that was discharged with some recirculated material from paper machine operations,” Lyons said.
He added, “There may be a small quantity of fiber in the water, and other materials that are typically found in the process of making paper, which is where the label ‘contaminated’ comes from.”
He said anytime wastewater that comes in contact with the papermaking process is discharged into the river it has to be reported to the Fire Department and be labeled as “contaminated.”
The Fire Department put all of its firefighters on alert at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday in response to the report.
The volume of the discharge was originally estimated to be about 56,000 gallons, but Lyons said later that the estimate, which was broadcast to emergency responders, was inaccurate.
Rumford Fire Chief Robert Chase described the spill as “benign” and said “nothing was needed from the Fire Department, in terms of emergency containment.”
Chase said the mill may have to work with the Maine DEP and other environmental groups to fully resolve the situation.
No one from the DEP went to the site Thursday, but David Madore, communications director for the DEP, said in a news release that a mill representative “tested the wastewater and confirmed it was essentially hot water with paper fiber.”
Based on that information, Madore said, no on-site response from DEP was required but “we are in contact with Catalyst Paper mill and will continue to monitor the situation.”
Lyons said there would be no lasting effect from the water being discharged.
He said cleanup activity for the mill, depending on the decision of the DEP, could involve vacuuming up any residual paper fibers that are left behind near the site of the discharge. He acknowledged the spill was not a normal occurrence at the mill and was not a permitted discharge.
Catalyst Paper Holdings, based in British Columbia, bought the Rumford mill in January. In addition to this mill, Catalyst owns six facilities across North America and has an estimated production capacity of 2.1 million tons of paper and 500,000 tons of pulp.
State Politics Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.
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