Fernandina Bch Mills (pollution?)

[squarpeg]

I am wondering if the above poster can site where they are getting that info. Is there a link to that? Would be interested in reading it.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by squarpeg

I am wondering if the above poster can site where they are getting that info. Is there a link to that? Would be interested in reading it.

I would too.

Some years ago, Johnny Miller (who is now mayor) looked into it and seemed mostly satisfied with the results.

However, I just found this from 2010-2011 (pdf file): Nonattainment

It is such a tricky situation and I can see both sides of it (I've spoken about it here before.)

[Sina7]

I found this:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/air/rules...04-03-2015.pdf

But its from 4/2015, a year ago, can't find anything from this year. Both plants are apparently still out of compliance, the non-attainment area is the entire downtown area, really most of the northern end of the island. If you read the report there is a map showing the areas affected.

[squarpeg]

If I am reading that correctly, it sounds to me like both mills are working to meet reduced so2 emissions in the near future. Which is a good thing. The mills are monitored here to one degree or another. I asked the EPA whether they were monitoring the mills and they sent me the links I will post below. It is pretty complicated stuff, not written for people who know nothing about what is being done or the process of monitoring, still gives me some comfort someone is watching things. One thing that did jump out at me upon looking at the reports is the sheer number of pollutants being monitored. Under pollutants just go look at the list of "toxic releases" It is pretty long and there is a lot of really bad stuff on it. Also note amount of pollution is listed in LBS and there is a lot, like 500,000LBS of hydrochloric acid. 44,000lbs of ammonia, 9,000lbs of formaldehyde.
I happened to have a conversation awhile back with a guy that used to work at Rayonier. He was telling me that they use a lot of Chlorine there. He said when he worked there it came in on rail cars. His claim was that the giant tanks sit outside the plant with a lot of sensors around them to monitor for possible leaks. He said they sit out there in the sun and heat up and one day he was around one of these things and a safety pressure valve released some of the gas and he was overcome by it. Claiming he couldn't breath and it burned his throat. Anyway, he starts telling me that while these tanks are monitored and pretty bullet proof should there ever be a major release, like someone sticks a bomb on one or the train car falls off the rail. That the resulting chlorine gas cloud would have something like a 5 mile kill zone down wind. Of course that kind of freaked me out hearing this. I don't know if any of this is true, this is just some guy I met once. Still I started reading a bit on it and it sure sounds like he may not be far off the mark. I will give you a couple links to read if your curious. It is obviously unlikely this would happen like a nuke plant melting down, but it could happen. Now every time I smell that plant in the wind... I can't help thinking....right now, I'm in the kill zone.

Chlorine Accidents Take a Big Human Toll - Scientific American

https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/...ons/tr-052.pdf

Chlorine Gas: An Evolving Hazardous Material Threat and Unconventional Weapon


Hear are the links to the EPA reports on both Fernandina Beach Mills

https://echo.epa.gov/detailed-facili...d=110027966814


https://echo.epa.gov/detailed-facili...d=110000588542

[Thundarr457]

My brother and sister in law live there and I was wondering if I should send them a link to this thread. We were visiting them recently and we could smell the paper plant(s) and they live 5 miles away.