Port Townsend Paper Corporation, Dale Stahl, Amcol International ARE Poisoning Port Townsend Washington's Air; PERIOD

"Port Townsend Paper Corporation is a kraft pulp mill that sits in Jefferson County, WA, immediately outside Port Townsend city limits on the edge of Port Townsend Bay. Its stench is a hallmark of the city. With or without the stink, the mill’s fumes bring to residents and visitors migraines, asthma, burning eyes and skin, disrupted sleep, and more. The stench generally goes south in the summer, north in the winter.

PT Paper’s product is long fibered unbleached kraft pulp, the raw material for corrugated cardboard. Most of the pulp is compressed and chopped into blocks that are shipped to Asia. A certain amount goes to PTPC’s corrugated box factories in southern British Columbia where it is made into boxes that are primarily shipped to Asia.

A secondary product is electricity. It’s standard for pulp mills to generate as much power as they need to operate. In PTPC’s case, they buy about 15 MW that they use at sub-market rates from Bonneville Power and sell power that they generate onsite back to the grid at higher than market rates as “green” power.

PT Paper’s parent company PT Holdings in partnership with international energy developer Sterling Energy Assets has plans to “more than double” their wood incineration to increase electricity production to approximately 24 MW, also known as the “biomass project”. It’s a bit of a misnomer: PTPC would burn exactly what they’re burning now — construction waste, hog fuel, whole logs, fossil fuels — it’s just that they’ll burn more than twice as much. Mill management indicates that the project is shelved for now due to low energy prices — expect that to change as soon as fracking is stopped and natural gas prices jump back up. PT AirWatchers’ challenge of the project on certain environmental issues was taken up by the WA Supreme Court for hearing. In Fall 2013, we await the outcome of that appeal.

An additional major revenue stream for the mill is tax subsidies. An incomplete assay of taxpayer-funded revenues for the mill comes to upwards of $60 million/year for burning a process waste called “black liquor”, as well as subsidies for cutting and  burning forests for fuel. Gratis you, the taxpayer.

The company has been owned non-locally since the mid-1990′s, went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2007, largely paying off major investors and largely shafting small local businesses, and is presently owned by a changing consortium of hedge funds. The main owner is Golden Tree Assets, a hedge fund in New York City with a branch that specializes in distressed properties. Executive Chairman Dale Stahl lives in Illinois.

http://search.nwsource.com/search?similarto=MB%3A2003548743

In a town of nearly 10,000 people, the company employs around 140 to 280 people, about 1/3-1/2 of whom commute from outside the city. Other major employers in Port Townsend are the Hospital, Schools, marine trades at around 400 employees each. The largest economic core is Social Security and retirement incomes. Many small innovative tech, industrial or artisanal companies locate here, as well as retail and service support companies, although as many are driven away by the mill stench."

Source
http://ptairwatchers.org/background-about-port-townsend-paper-mill/