Continual Improvement as Stewards of the Environment
Actions speak louder than words. The following examples display the responsible and dedicated manner in which DMI and its employees recognize that environmental performance is a way of life.
Cariboo Pulp & Paper Company is committed to protection of the environment in which it works and lives. Major environmental projects have placed Cariboo well within the existing environmental standards for both mill effluent and air emissions in British Columbia. Current B.C. regulations require less than 1.5 kilograms of chlorinated organics in the effluent per tonne of pulp produced as well as compliance with other permit parameters. Meeting these regulations required:
- an oxygen delignification system;
- an additional lagoon to meet the consistent compliance requirements for fish toxicity and suspended solids;
- a power boiler scrubber to enable the mill to generate most of its energy from hog fuel while meeting the provincial government air emissions standards; and
- with the installation of an additional chlorine dioxide generator in 1992, Cariboo is capable of operating well below the 1.5 kilograms/tonne of chlorinated organics limit.
Peace River Pulp Division uses advanced technologies to produce 100 per cent elemental chlorine free pulp virtually eliminating dioxins and furans. Elemental chlorine free pulping substitutes chlorine dioxide for elemental chlorine as the bleaching chemical. The mill's extended and oxygen delignification technologies also removed more of the lignin from the wood prior to the bleaching stage and thus reduced the amount of bleaching required.
Other environmental facts for Peace River Pulp Division include:
- more than 95% of the pulp mill's energy needs are generated internally from wood yard operations and chemical wastes; advanced air emission technology;
- low consumption of water from the Peace River;
- a primary and a secondary effluent treatment system; and
- the mill site is monitored to protect groundwater quality
