Boiler

 April 4, 2007

Red Shield is moving ahead with plans to start up its pulp mill in the near future, DEP official Ed Logue said on Tuesday, but no decision has been made on when the burning of C and D materials can resume on the site.

“(Red Shield’s) focus has always been on making the pulp mill its main business, initially, then utilize it for the creation of an alternate form of ethanol,” Logue said.

In order to make that change happen, Logue said, there will have to be discussions among Red Shield, the EPA, and the DEP about what requirements will need to be met and to set up a schedule as the paper mill converts to ethanol.

“The time (frame) and how it works will be sequential,” Logue said. “We’ll ramp it up as we work out the details.”

Red Shield shut down its biomass boiler three weeks ago after two incidents of soot emissions that peppered some parts of Bradley with black granules. Following the shutdown, Red Shield and DEP officials worked to locate the source of the soot emissions problem and traced it to a problem with the air controls and the ash hopper. During that time, the DEP gave the company the okay to burn whole tree or green wood\ chips in the biomass boiler, but will not allow them to burn construction and demolition debris (C and D) until a final determination has been made on the state of the boiler. The DEP is also testing samples of ash taken from the site around the same time that the soot emissions incidents occurred. Some samples of ash taken from the site during that time had tested high for lead content. The DEP also took a sample of ash from a home in Bradley last week after the homeowner asked that it be tested.

“We received a report last Friday that told us what had happened (to the boiler), and why,” Logue said. “But now we need to decide what needs to be done.”

While awaiting the results of the report and the DEP’s testing, Red Shield has hired at least four more employees to work on the maintenance crew. Red Shield human resources director Dan Bird said last week that the hiring process was just a continuation of the company’s plan to prepare for the eventual restart of the pulp mill.

The biomass boiler remains shut down as a result of the annual drop in energy prices associated with the spring heating season. The cost of burning only green wood chips combined with the seasonal resurgence of hydro power may keep the boiler shut down indefinitely.