Blue Ridge Paper Commits $8.2 Million to Further Reduce Emissions.

CANTON, N.C. -- Blue Ridge Paper Products will spend $8.2 million over the next 11 months to reduce volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions at its Pulp and Paper Mill here. The improvements will reduce VOC emissions by more than 600,000 pounds per year and improve air quality for Western North Carolina, according to Blue Ridge Paper Product's CEO Richard Lozyniak. Construction is scheduled to begin in July and will take about nine months to complete, Lozyniak said.

"Air quality improvements are very important for all of us who live and work in Western North Carolina. Since the formation of Blue Ridge Paper Products in 1999, we have invested more than $25 million in environmental improvements because we know our future depends on our ability to meet environmental expectations as well as the competitive demands of the international marketplace," Lozyniak said.

In the third phase of an ongoing air quality improvement initiative that began in 2002, the company will install state-of-the-art pollution control technology to capture and destroy the VOCs, a component of wood chips released in the pulping process, in a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO). "We've already reduced nitrogen oxides by more than 50 percent year-round and further reduced particulate matter emissions," said Bob Williams, Blue Ridge Paper Director of Regulatory Affairs. "As with all environmental improvements, we try to go above and beyond what the regulations require."

The reduction project is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) program. The Canton mill is reducing emissions by substantially more than what is required by the program according to Williams, and is a charter member of the EPA's Environmental Achievement Track Program, which recognizes businesses that outperform regulatory requirements to protect public health and the environment.

Headquartered in Canton, Blue Ridge Paper Products Inc. is a leading producer of envelope and specialty papers and coated bleached board for food service packaging. It has six plants in five states, including its Canton mill, an extrusion coating plant in Waynesville, N.C. and four DairyPak converting plants in Athens, Ga., Clinton, Iowa, Olmsted Falls, Ohio and Richmond, Va.

Blue Ridge Paper Products is owned by KPS Special Situations Fund, L.P., and by the employees of Blue Ridge Paper through an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). For more information, visit www.blueridgepaper.com.