Wood Chip Industry Feeling Mounting Pressure from Citizens

[Arthur Clark <aclark@essential.org>]

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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT
- NATURAL RESOURCES POLICY ADVISORY
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TAP-RESOURCES
August 6, 1997



*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

Contact: Jon Ellenbogen or Douglas Sloane
	  Co-Directors, Southeast Forest Project
         (202) 234-1436


August 5, 1997

Public Pressure Mounts Against Wood Chipping Industry

Willamette cancels application for controversial barge 
terminal permit in Kentucky -- reflects industry concern 
about growing public opposition to wood chipping industry.


Washington, DC: Facing legal action, agency opposition 
and public concern, Willamette Industries recently 
withdrew its permit application for a controversial barge 
terminal according to Army Corps of Engineers officials.

At least two chip mills presently under construction would 
have shipped wood chips via publicly subsidized waterways 
to Willamette's expanding pulp and paper plant in Hawesville, 
KY according to company officials, if this barge terminal 
had been permitted.

The proposed permit would have granted Willamette Industries 
access to publicly subsidized waterways which are ten times 
less expensive to use for shipping than truck or rail.  Access 
to publicly subsidized waterways would have expanded the 
economically feasible sourcing area of the pulp and paper 
plant.  

"It appears that Willamette Industries wanted to avoid public 
scrutiny of their activities.  We would have valued a full 
review of the environmental and economic impacts of this permit.  
Despite its withdrawal, we are concerned with the impacts of many 
other chip mills and loading facilities, and we will continue to 
push for a region-wide study of the impacts of the proliferating 
wood chipping industry in the South and Central US," stated Cielo 
Myczack, Campaign Coordinator of the Dogwood Alliance.

Local opposition in North Carolina and Missouri to proposed new 
chip mills, that have been identified by Willamette officials as 
suppliers of the expanded Hawesville plant, joined with national 
environmental organizations as well as the EPA and US Fish and 
Wildlife Service in opposition to this permit.  

Prior proposed chip mills have been opposed by sawmillers and 
furniture makers because chip mills threaten their more sustainable 
wood using businesses.  Chip mills have also been opposed by 
environmental groups because logging to supply them causes water 
quality degradation, loss of terrestrial and aquatic habitat and 
ecosystem degradation.

In the past decade, at least 100 of the more than 140 chip mills in 
the Southeast have been constructed.  Annual logging to supply these 
chip mills has been estimated to exceed 1.2 million acres annually.

"Though there has been a vast proliferation of chip mills throughout 
the Central and Southern US in the past decade to supply the pulp and 
paper industry, there is little thorough documentation of the impacts 
of the wood chipping industry despite growing public concern," stated 
Douglas Sloane, Co-Director of the Southeast Forest Project.  

Since the beginning of this year, citizens throughout the Southeast 
have been calling for a region-wide study of the impacts of the wood 
chipping industry.

                            ###


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