Evaluation of Toxic Air Pollutant Ambient Impacts of a Kraft Pulp Mill Expansion Project, 1996 Environmental Conference Proceedings

The Boise Cascade Corporation (Boise) operates an integrated pulp and paper mill in Wallula, Washington. As such, the mill is subject to an aggressive toxic air pollutant (TAP) program administered by the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), which requires the applicant to address both possible control technologies for and ambient impacts of the proposed emissions of regulated TAPS. Boise reviewed a proposed capacity increase in light of the TAP program and determined that the increase would subject the mill to these regulations, including a control technology review and ambient impact analysis. By compiling and examining data collected both on site and by the National Council of the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI), Boise and its consultant predicted TAP increases from the proposed project. A review of possible control technologies was then prepared for the modified recovery furnace and pulp digester. In addition, a modeling analysis of 18 TAPS was performed. The analysis is one of the first using the data collected by NCASI, and shows the wide variation in both mass emissions and ambient ground level impacts from the different source types within an integrated pulp and paper mill. This paper presents the results of the TAP inventory construction and identifies the major TAPS emitted from the mill on a process area basis. The paper reviews the overall ambient impacts of the modeled pollutants and compares these impacts to acceptable source impact levels. Finally, the paper examines the dispersion effects from emission sources introduced by the NCASI Maximum Achievable Control