“The impact will be felt for generations” – Gov. Asa Hutchinson
When I heard Arkadelphia won the Chinese lottery, my second thought was “this is weird.” Weird is used to describe situations beyond belief: mysterious, strange, abnormal, unearthly, unusual, creepy, spooky, freaky, and many others.
Twilight Zone
The only thing missing was the theme song and the eerie introduction, “You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…” When the plans for Sun Paper were announced last November, it sounded like a great idea for China. Not much was known; some said it had to do with paper or solar panels. The details last week of a mill by the Ouachita National Forest makes a bad dream a terrifying nightmare.
Not everyone agrees with me. I found an online report with a long title, “What turned one cynical, liberal environmentalist around on Sun Paper in Arkadelphia.” Bryan DeBusk says there is nothing to worry about, Arkadelphia will not stink like Pine Bluff or Crossett, no contamination, no loss of property values, and the $167.5 million in incentives is not cash that can be directed toward a specific goal. DeBusk says the mill is a done deal and great things will come. Brian is dead wrong.
Pretend Free Zone
What is the total cost of deforestation? According to Matthew Pelkki, a forestry professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, China will use three million tons of wood to produce 700,000 tons of pulp per year. With the other mills planned for 2016, ten and a half tons of trees would be used per year.
First things first. Arkansas is not prepared for severe floods, droughts, and extreme heat. Climate Central, based on known threats and preventive actions, ranks Arkansas at the bottom of the list. Why spend funds planting trees, emergency shelters, warning systems, repairing bridges, sewer lines, and country roads, when we can pretend nothing has changed?
Arkansas foresters talk about the wood basket and surplus timber inventories, pretending trees are crops and growing new trees is only a matter of time. Flooding, droughts, and extreme heat in a 406 ppm world are ignored. Replacing forests with fast growth tree plantations ignores the importance of biodiversity and the wildlife habitats ecologists understand. Some trees are more resilient when waters rise. Fast-moving floods can damage root systems, and injure trees with debris. Sluggish waters, deposited mud, sediment and waterlogged soils deplete oxygen and suffocate trees.
China knows forests are the source of clean air, clean water and food, and precious forest soil. Trees are not sticks in the ground to be clear-cut for timber. Bamboo and other fast-growing grasses are used for construction.
What is the total cost of the mill to Arkansans? $167.5 million in incentives, paid by public funds, is incomplete and deceptive: rebate and tax back programs, sales exemptions on equipment, property tax abatement, a recycling tax credit, customized training for company workers, and development of an “intermodal facility” for a public railyard located at Gum Springs. Every penny comes from taxes.
Think of the logging trucks from the forests to the mill: 400 daily truckload deliveries will be made to the mill. Who pays for roads and road repairs to handle these trucks?
Intermodal containers are shipping containers used across different modes of transport – from ship to rail to truck – without unloading and reloading the cargo. Who pays for the new facility?
Reality Check
There is time to re-think and find better ways to provide safe jobs, protect public health, and the Arkansas tourist economy. We need emergency shelters and an overhaul of roads, bridges, sewer lines, and everything else to deal with extreme weather.
Climate warriors have been arrested at sit-ins and other peaceful demonstrations. Disclosing the whole truth and proposing alternatives is my choice. Why lay down on the ground when we can stand tall? Sun Paper is not a done deal. If asked, I would be happy to call Chairman Li.
Dr. Luis Contreras
The Ouachita Riverkeper is an organization ya’ll should join.They have been active for years in the uphill battle against the continued degradation of our environment for the so called benefit of jobs. We can have a healthy environment and healthy economy if we will work long and hard and together. contact ouachitariverkeeper.org
Michael, great suggestion. Hope others will join!
Dr. Contreras
All I can see from your post is pride and prejudice. How much you know about China and how much you understand about pulping industry? and FYI the electricity selling to grid is recovered energy from the waste and recycling…that’s why the modern pulping mill is cleaner than you thought (how should you know with your limited knowledge about this industry anyway?). You don’t understand the process and modern tech in this field, so you have no right to comment on many things. I also have a Ph D (chemical engineering), feel embraced by your ignorance.
John,
Thank you, for reading my opinion on the Sun Paper fluff mill, and for taking the time to comment.
Have we met? You seem to know a great deal about my professional experience and my dealings with Chinese companies.
I would love to respond with a sarcastic comment, but the consequences of what Mike Preston calls “sweet talk to snag the mill from Mississippi” on the Democrat-Gazette May 15, 2016, are deadly for Arkansas. Please talk to Pine Bluff or Crossett residents for details.
Do you have inside information on the Sun Paper pulp process? Mike Preston and others have not disclosed the project specifications.
Pulp manufacturing is not 21st-Century technology. Fluff mills use the Kraft process (sulfite pulping) with white, black and green liquor in a digester, to remove lignin from the cellulose fibers.
The recovery boiler generates steam and electricity. Sun Paper plans to sell power to the grid. On paper, this sounds simple, but APSC decides who can feed megawatts of power to the grid, with an interconnection agreement involving SPP and the South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative. I don’t know the specs of the transmission lines or the transformers required to match the power from the mill. Power lines and equipment required are some of the missing pieces in the total cost to Arkansas taxpayers.
Sun Paper may be using a chlorine-free bleaching process to reduce pollution on the Gum Springs watershed, but the stench comes from the digester.
Are you asking what I know about China manufacturing? I know a great deal, and what I know is not good for the “lucky” Arkansans working under harsh Chinese supervisors and managers, with no benefits and low wages. This is not a Japanese, lean manufacturing facility.
China has few forests and the worst air quality in the world. China does not want the stench, road traffic and pollution from the massive mill. China wants cheap labor and all our trees. They will have diaper production lines and make a killing from Arkansas fluff.
China got a steal from our government by playing hard to get. Mississippi was a red herring. Chairman Li was trained reading Sun Tzu’s strategic thinking.
Just between us, this is not a done deal, not gonna happen! Once Mike and Asa stop the victory dance, they will get back to Li.
Rats, my ignorance, pride, and prejudice is going to get me in trouble with you, again.
Looking forward to specific questions from you.
Best, Luis
John, I hope I did not cross the line, I have been looking forward to your response, we seem to be embraced by science and all the other things you mention
Take care, John
Nancy, great question!
Our main weapon is speaking out and telling the truth about the project. It helps to understand why would anyone pay a Chinese company to build a pulp mill. The reason given is 250 jobs.
Counties want to create jobs. We need good jobs and protect everyone. To stop the mill, we need to offer better alternatives.
According to Climate Center, Arkansas is not prepared for extreme floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires from our new climate. After the December 26, 2015 UK floods with leaving many cities near London with serious water damage, the communities are planting trees to protect flooded areas. Tree roots hold soil in place and are natural barriers to slow down the flow and store water in the soil. Instead of cutting our forests to make fluff for China, we need more trees to help with flooding and heat waves.
Arkansas needs to stop burning coal and gas at power plants. Rooftop solar panels and shared arrays are the best way to provide power where needed, and at the right amount. Training teams of solar installers would create many permanent high-paying jobs. Installing solar systems is labor intensive, requiring several people to install panels on the roof safely. Local carpenters, electricians, and roofers can be trained in a short time.
Road repair, bridge repairs, sewer maintenance and other infrastructure needs upgrading to provide service during heavy storms or tornadoes. Please look at “Tips for emergency readiness” in this newspaper, May 11, 2016.
Who pays for the training and repairs? The funds Arkansas wants to give China can be used to pay for these improvements.
I will have information on the ES Independent next week. Please talk with your friends, they may have better ideas of the jobs we need to create. Thank you.
What are ways to fight this plan?
Hello, Nancy. I posted a response to your great question, did you see it?
Today I am working on a related story. Luis
Nancy, did you see my response to your question? Please look today for an update on the Sun Paper deal, it is full of holes, not gonna happen. Luis
Why pay China? The total incentives are over $200 million … and this does not include lost tourist revenue or the social cost of pollution and infrastructure
Not only China is getting paid to come, but it gets to sell power to the grid burning additional wood. Arkadelphia gets GHG emissions and PM from wood smoke, China gets the revenue and the fluff
“The plant also will produce electricity, Wright said. It could produce as much as 70 megawatts of electricity a day, Maloch said. The plant will use about 20 megawatts of electricity daily and put about 50 megawatts back onto the electric grid, “Wright said.
Awesome deal … for China!