Inland Empire Paper Company
 

“Q: Biggest threat to the river right now, in your opinion?


“A: Toxics. It's not even on the horizon yet. I include in that PCBs and the heavy metals. There is huge pollution from PBDEs, the flame retardants, that are used in upholstery and computer manufacturing. Turns out we have high readings of PBDEs in the Spokane River. I'm not sure where they've come from.


“The PCBs are a combination of historic practices from some kind of armory or World War II ordinance station or weapons development program out in the Valley. There are PCBs from that. Avista's hydraulic equipment. PCBs have been used in lubricants traditionally. Lots of PCBs floating beneath Kaiser. And Inland Empire Paper is a current discharger of PCBs to the river that we heard is coming from a paper that is being recycled at the plant that has yellow dye in it that is apparently manufactured elsewhere in the world.


“PBDEs, not sure. Computer manufacturers in the Valley? We don't even know. At this point, we have the data showing that they are in the sediments. How we're going to deal with these and clean these up will be a huge challenge for this community.


“The PCB TMDL is on the horizon. Ecology has been doing the technical assessment. It is now at least 15 months behind schedule.”


_____________

Interview with Rachael Paschal Osborn,

    Environmental lawyer a 'voice of the wilderness'


in the series:

    Rebecca Nappi, Spokane River Dialogues


Spokesman Review Mar 5, 2006


 

“Q: Rachael Paschal Osborn, (a Spokane environmental lawyer also interviewed for this series) told us: "Inland Empire Paper is a current discharger of PCBs to the river. We've heard it's coming from a paper that is being recycled at the plant that has yellow dye in it that is manufactured elsewhere in the world."


“A: That information comes from me. Actually, it comes from NCASI (National Council for Air and Stream Improvement) who researched it for the industry. In the '70s, the manufacturers of PCBs were eliminated because (PCBs) don't go away. They stay in nature. What's interesting is that there are EPA regulations that allow imported products to come into the country with a specific amount of PCBs, and I believe that number is 50 parts per million. So what's happening is we're receiving inks, or our publishers are receiving inks, and those yellow inks contain this 50 or less parts per million of PCBs. When we put it through our recycling process, even though it's such a low concentration, and we're diluting it much further with our wastewater treatment system. You still end up with just a minute amount.


“We were not a PCB discharger until we put in the de-ink facility. It became evident to us that's where it was coming from in. It's very, very small. Its parts per quadrillion. It's a very minute quantity, but it still exists there.


“But there is nothing we can particularly do about it. Something needs to be done on the front end. Somebody needs to eliminate the import of these materials from our inks in our publishing. EPA needs to implement laws that say, no, we will not accept products with any trace.


“Q: No more PCBs in the yellow dye, in other words.


“A: Or in any ink. We found out through NCASI that there are indeed substitutes for that. You don't have to manufacture the inks with the PCBs.”


_____________

Interview with Doug Krapas,

   Compliance engineer thinks globally


in the series:

   Rebecca Nappi, Spokane River dialogues


Spokesman Review April 2, 2006



Inland Empire Paper

&

Spokane River PCBs


Inland Empire Paper Co. (IEP) has been identified as a PCB polluter to the Spokane River.  According to the draft PCB study (March 2006), IEP’s wastewater stream contains PCB concentrations of 2544 picograms (trillionths) per liter and must be reduced by 99% to achieve downstream water quality standards to protect human health.


Inland Empire Paper is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cowles Publishing Company, which also owns and publishes the Spokesman-Review. The newspaper has undertaken the series "Spokane River Dialogues" encouraging an open discussion about the River's pollution and flow issues, including PCB pollution from Inland Empire Paper (see interview, below).


According to the interviews quoted below, the PCBs that Inland Empire discharges via a wastewater pipe into the Spokane River are derived from inks that are imported into the United States and used in paper manufacturing.  According to IEP’s website the company purchases newspaper from throughout he western U.S. and produces 150 tons of fiber per day.  Hence, it appears that PCBs from recycled newspapers throughout the west contribute both to Inland Empire Paper Co.’s profitable newspaper recycling operation, and to significant PCB releases into the Spokane River.