The Port Townsend Paper Mill has Blatant Pollution and Total Disregard for the Rights of Port Townsend to Breath Clean Air

Complain to the City Manager of Port Townsend, the Port Townsend Commissioners.

It is clear that complaining to the mill about the mill is FUTILE.

Complaining to the Department of Ecology is futile as well. They want the Mill to stay open and poisoning us. There are serious rumours of pay offs of the DOE, and even a Port Townsend commissioner though I am not certain which one, I have been told about how it may be happening.

The Port Townsend Paper Mill is poisoning us, why is money put over your rights to clean air?

Jefferson County and the City of Port Townsend have more power than you may think. They can enact laws that would forbid hug polluters in the county and create clean jobs instead.  You have complained to the mill for years and to the Department of Ecology and NOTHING has been done.

The Port Townsend Paper Mill is USING massive amounts of water;

Complain to Ian Jablonski, City of Port Townsend water quality manager , ya know the guy that said to the PT leader that YOU should conserve water. Even though the mill uses 14 MILLION gallons a day. http://www.ptleader.com/news/drought-city-raises-lords-lake-a-second-time-this-year/article_e908d478-19f7-11e5-80cb-13bf9568a566.html

The PortTownsend Paper Mill is clearly acting "out of line with the science and economics of our resources. "

"Hi Crystal,

 Wishing to become involved in efforts to reduce pollution from the PT cardboard mill.

After moving here 2 years ago, I am surprised that the federal and state laws have not reined in the blatant pollution of this mill.

 Ecology has received odor reports from me for the past 24 months, but claims not to have my records from Marrowstone Island.

Ms Davis of Ecology did send me a map of odor reporters—not sure if this does anything.
Noise from the mill seems to have increased in the past week (June 20th 2015) has something recently changed?

Mill using 14 times the amount of fresh water compared to the city of PT during a drought… arghh!
Mill engineers ignore suggestions for “best practice” to reduce odor from their outdated kraft technology.

For example, Toronto paper mill produces less toxin and is less consumptive of water and natural resources.

Wondering if the Port Townsend chamber of commerce has explored alternatives to the mill as an employment base by suggesting a more “green” industry be located there?  Building ferry boats has been suggested.

Please email me with any suggestion for becoming involved more effectively to abate this egregious problem.

John Comstock
Marrowstone Island, WA.


You may post my letter.

I respect you for taking a vigorous position on this issue.
It is easy to see that this mill is out of line with the science and economics of our resources.

I shall explore examples of other mills and communities that have abated such blatant pollution, either through modernizing the process, or—more likely—replacing it with a greener technology.

NRDC seems a likely resource, as does Greenpeace and Sierra Club.  EPA should be doing more, but they seem to be mouthing regulations and platitudes, while turning a blind eye to the gross violations.

Besides the (egregious) 14 million gallons per day water consumption, do you have other statistics on relevant issues such as:

Logging and timber clear cutting, and its effect on siltation of salmon streams
Amount and types of VOCs and other toxins pumped into the air
What is in the discharge water they produce, and its effects
Bark chips floating on the bay, and their effect on the aquatic environment
Amount of fuel burned for transportation to and from the mill
Effect of all those heavy trucks on our roads, and who pays for them
the list goes on…

John Comstock
Marrowstone Island WA."

Port Townsend is in a drought. The Olympic Peninsula is in a state of emergency drought and yet the Port Townsend Paper Mill uses 14 million gallons of clean, fresh water daily and POLLUTES it. All in the name of GREED. "Drought: City raises Lords Lake a second time this year"

The City o Port Townsend is not ready to call it a Crisis YET? 

WTF? It is a serious CRISIS.

The Port Townsend Paper Corp. uses 14 MILLION Gallons a Day. This is NOT acceptable period.  AND the City of Port Townsend want YOU to "conserve water"?? What a Joke.

Ian Jablonski, City of Port Townsend water quality manager wants you to cut down on water use. See it would be a good idea to stop watering lawns and restrict unnecessary water use,” Jablonski said.

SERIOUSLY Port Townsend, are you falling for this CRAP?

I seen a Port Townsend Commissioners meeting last March about the 14 Million Gallon that the Port Townsend Paper Mill uses every SINGLE day and that it is FUTILE to ask the residents to not consume when the Port Townsend Paper Corp. uses an OUTRAGEOUS amount EVERY SINGLE DAY.


"The City of Port Townsend expects to start drawing from Lords Lake this week to meet the city’s water needs – more than two months earlier than is historically normal.

The move signals an increasing awareness of the severely low snowpack throughout the state, which prompted Gov. Jay Inslee to call a statewide emergency drought situation in May.

On Monday, June 22, the state Department of Natural Resources expanded a burn ban on all state-protected lands to include those west of the Cascades.

Even Port Townsend Paper Corp. is looking to save water by considering the installation of a second cooling tower, which would save it an additional 500,000 gallons a day.

Olympic National Park officials, who are currently monitoring a lightning-caused fire in the Queets Valley in West Jefferson, report that this is the Olympic Peninsula's driest year since 1951.

LORDS LAKE

“We’ve never had to draw from the lake this early,” said Ian Jablonski, City of Port Townsend water quality manager and a 22-year city employee. It's typical to draw from the lake in early September, he said.

City officials aren't calling the situation a crisis, but Jablonski said Tuesday it is time for city residents to think about water consumption.

“It would be a good idea for our customers to stop watering lawns and restrict unnecessary water use,” Jablonski said.

At one water gauge below the city's diversion point, the Little Quilcene River had a flow of 32 cubic feet per second, the lowest recorded flow for this time of year since the gauge was installed in 1994, he said.
No official declaration urging water conservation has been made by the city.
In the meantime, the city has received permission from the state Department of Ecology (DOE) to raise the level of Lords Lake for a second time in three months in an effort to capture more water from the Big Quilcene River, which also is dropping because of the low Olympic Mountains snowpack.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a few more million gallons,” Jablonski said of the effort to add to Lords Lake.


Source
http://www.ptleader.com/news/drought-city-raises-lords-lake-a-second-time-this-year/article_e908d478-19f7-11e5-80cb-13bf9568a566.html

The Port Townsend Paper Mill has a HUGE Carbon Footprint and needs to STOP poisoning us as a matter of law. Check out this Groundbreaking Ruling.

I wonder if we, Port Townsend can get Attorney Andrea Rodgers of the Western Environmental Law Center to sue the Port Townsend Paper Mill for poisoning us?

It is time for the Washington Department of Ecology to not be about money for corporations and instead do what you pay them to and PROTECT the actual Ecology of Washington.

"In an unprecedented decision, a judge in Washington State has ruled in favor of a group of young people who filed a lawsuit last year asking that the state be required to develop a science-based plan for limiting carbon emissions in order to protect the climate for future generations.

The lawsuit, Zoe & Stella Frazier v. Washington Department of Ecology, was brought last year by eight teens and preteens, the youngest nine years old, who filed a petition last June with the Department of Ecology, requesting that it develop a rule “to recommend to the legislature an effective emissions reduction trajectory that is based on best available climate science and will achieve safe atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide by 2100.”

“Youth petitioners hereby submit this petition for rulemaking on behalf of themselves, the citizens of the State of Washington, and present and future generations of children,” it said.

Last August, the Department of Ecology denied the petition although it did not deny the scientific basis for it. The petitioners filed an appeal, arguing that they had a right to grow up in a healthy environment. King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill agreed with them and ordered the Department of Ecology to reconsider their petition and report back to the court by July 8 whether it will consider the science necessary to climate recovery.

“Washington State’s existing statutory limits should be adjusted to better reflect the current science,” wrote Hill in her decision. “The limits need to be more aggressive in order for Washington to do its part to address climate risks.”

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Andrea Rodgers of the Western Environmental Law Center, pointed to the groundbreaking nature of the decision.

“The effect of this decision is that for the first time in the U.S., a court of law has ordered a state agency to consider the most current and best available climate science when deciding to regulate carbon dioxide emissions,” she said. “The court directed Ecology to apply the agency’s own findings that climate change presents an imminent threat to Washington and demands immediate action. The ball is now in Ecology’s court to do the right thing and protect our children and future generations.”

In a footnote to her order, Judge Hill explained why she rejected the Department of Ecology’s plan to delay acting on emissions."

Source
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/groundbreaking-court-ruling-says-state-must-address-climate-change-thanks-to-teen-lawsuit

The Port Townsend Paper Mill Consistently creates TOXINS in our air and water. The Washington Department of Ecology and Jefferson County Washington protect them to do so, and this is in the name of the "Smell of Money". As if Jobs created poisoning are air and water are a GOOD THING.

PORT TOWNSEND PAPER MILL SPRINGS A LEAK

"A leak in an underground line at the Port Townsend Paper Corp. earlier this week led to a system shutdown and will require a repair, but there is no impact on the public aside from the smell, mill employees said Wednesday.

“The leak is well within the mill boundaries, and we don't believe any contamination has left the property,” said Kevin Scott, environmental officer for the company.

“While there is a small chance of some odor, the contamination is confined to the site of the leak,” he said.

Monday's leak was in an underground foul condensate pipe that is used to transport wastewater from the mill to a holding pond where toxins are removed before the water is routed into Port Townsend Bay.

Scott said the leak was detected at about 1:45 p.m. and stopped at about 4:15 p.m., letting about 120 gallons of untreated wastewater to spill into the earth.

Once the leak was shut down, the wet earth was excavated, Scott said. It will be examined later to see whether it is hazardous and requires special disposal.

The diverted stream from the leak is going to the treatment pond until the pipe is repaired.

Scott said the company expects to have the system back in full operation this week. He said the mill immediately notified the state Department of Ecology.

The agency had an already-scheduled visit Tuesday.

It took that opportunity to inspect the leak, Scott said.

“They told us at the time they were not concerned,” Scott said.

Ecology spokeswoman Kathy Davis said the agency's industrial section staff engineers were present at the site Wednesday and that the agency's spills program also responded.

The mill recently has encouraged residents to call in with odor complaints, reconfiguring its Community Impact Line, 360-379-4224, for that purpose."

Source

http://www.pulp-paperworld.com/usa/north-american-news/item/4366-port-townsend-paper-mill-springs-a-leak-temporarily

Calling in with Odor COMPLAINTS for YEARS Does NOTHING.

The Washington Department of Ecology is about money, pay offs in my opinion and greed and NOT about the law, the clean air act, clean water laws or the fact that we are in a severe drought.

Port Townsend Paper Mill Gets GRANT Money for FREE to Poison the Air and Water of Port Townsend.

State Department of Commerce grant.

Surely Jefferson County, Port Townsend could have created some pretty amazing JOB, Clean Jobs with no smell of money toxins and no 14 gallons of water being poisoned every day, with a $2 million State Department of Commerce Grant. STOP Giving the Port Townsend Paper Corporation money to poison our Air, WATER, and Soil. And essentially to break the law via the clean air act.
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20091007/NEWS/310079992

Port Townsend Paper leveraged $53 million in additional funding to match the $2 million state Department of Commerce Grant.

STOP Giving the Port Townsend Paper Corporation money to poison our Air, WATER, and Soil. And essentially to break the law via the clean air act.

We are in a TIME OF massive dangerous drought. And the arrogance of the "Smell of Money" is poisoning 14 million gallons of water a day. And then putting it back into the Port Townsend Bay. Is this a Port Townsend Value?

The most important thing is clean air, clean water, and clean soil. The Port Townsend Paper mill is poisoning us.

It is a fact that the fine particle air that the Port Townsend Paper mill is spewing is toxic. The city of Port Townsend can enact laws to stop this pollution that we are all breathing. It is not about the Smell of Money that is for the corporations. The mill can provide other CLEAN options for the workers. It is a violation of the Clean Air Act for Jefferson County to continue letting the Port Townsend Mill poison our air and in the name of what? Money?

What is your life, your lungs, your kids life and health worth? It is a Public Safety issue that we are breathing toxic air. That on top of the Port Townsend Paper mill using 14 million gallons of clean water a day, that they poison and put into the Port Townsend Bay. We are currently putting their money, putting money in general in front of the rights we have to Clean Air and Clean Water, the rights of the ecosystem in the Port Townsend Bay, and our right to clean drinking water.

Our AIR is the MOST important Issue. Really what could be more important?

Shut Down the Port Townsend Paper MILL
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shut-Down-the-Port-Townsend-Paper-Mill/1600063010208886?fref=ts

STOP Poisoning US

Port Townsend Police Brutality?

Port Townsend Alleged Police Brutality Incident.
Stay Tuned for more information. It is said there were many witnesses.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1596929913911566/