
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 17, 1994                   TAG: 9407180130
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD

Westvaco has faced negative publicity in the past for both air and water pollution problems at the Covington mill, but Westvaco takes every opportunity to point out that it tries to be a good steward of the environment.

When the suspected carcinogen dioxin was found in fish several miles below the plant in the 1980s, the company spent $13 million to change its bleaching process and reduce its dioxin byproduct by 99 percent. The company said over the years that it has spent over $170 million to protect the environment around the Covington mill and spends another $20 million annually to operate the mill's environmental protection systems.

The mill is surrounded by Appalachian hardwood forests and uses 75 percent hardwood in its production of paper.

It takes four tons of pulpwood to make one ton of paper, and the Covington mill consumes 5,500 tons of wood every day. But the company says that every year it plants twice as many trees as it cuts.

The new recovery boiler, which went into operation in 1991, retrieves chemicals from the paper-making process but it also provides 40 percent of the steam needed to operate the mill.

While the mill is one of Virginia Power Co.'s largest customers, it also has the ability to produce all of its own power needs or up to 37,000 kilowatts of electricity. It burns 600 tons of wood waste daily to supplement the coal that fires its boilers.

by CNB