Marathon Pulp investing in air quality. (Special Report: Energy/Environment).

Marathon Pulp Inc. is known for manufacturing northern bleached softwood kraft pulp; but the pulp and paper company is starting to be recognized for the work it is doing to reduce various air pollutants that can affect people's health and contribute to air pollution. problems like smog.

"We want to be an environmentally-responsible company and do our part to protect the environment and make Marathon a good place to live," says Sue Nakanishi, the technical manager at the plant. "Everybody has to do their part to keep the environment healthy for the future."

According to Environment Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory, which monitors air pollutant emissions across Canada, their numbers indicate that the company has reduced its hydrogen sulphide emissions from 187.43 tonnes in 1999 to 94.48 tonnes in 2000.

"Hydrogen sulphide is probably the big one, which is one of the odour-causing compounds that are typically associated with kraft pulp mills, and that is one that we have done a lot of work on over the years because it is a public nuisance because your mill smells bad," Nakanishi says. "So, we have put in a lot of new systems to better collect those gases and now we burn them."

The systems the company put in place include vapour collection systems and piping that allows the company to burn the gases to get energy out of them, rather than letting them be emitted into the air, she says. They have also replaced their evaporators for operational purposes. The cost of the project was $42.5 million, but Nakanishi points out that it was an initiative that helped to reduce the odour caused by the hydrogen sulphide. Upgrades to the dissolving scrubbers in 1997, at a cost of approximately $300,000, also helped reduce the odour-causing emissions, Nakanishi indicates.

The company has also reduced its chlorine dioxide emissions from 20.8 tonnes in 1994. to 1.26 tonnes in 2000.

The company has also reduced its sulphuric acid emissions from 18.80 tonnes in 1994 to 7.16 tonnes in 2000. Nakanishi points out that in 1995 the company underwent a $27-million project to make major improvements to their water quality and the effluent, or waste water, going out to the lake.

"Before this project, we ran effluent through a clarifier, which just takes out the solids, but it does not take out any of the dissolved wood components that are in the effluent," she explains. "So, we put in a new biological treatment system, which really efficiently removes all that stuff and has reduced biochemical oxygen demand by probably 90 percent. Our effluent is now nontoxic."

In addition, the company invested about $500,000 in 2000 to eliminate its PCB transformers.

"It is just a worthwhile thing to do to protect the environment, and a lot of times you can do projects that help the environment as well as help efficiency at the mill and reduce costs, so it is a win-win (decision)," she adds.

Marathon Pulp Inc. is owned equally by Tembec Inc., and the closely held Canadian corporation Kruger Inc.