“I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.” ― Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding hood…,” this is how the story starts. The G version ends with a loving grandmother; the real story has a bad wolf.
Silence and deception
Let’s start with the wolf: the fluff mill will use kraft chemical pulping and chlorine bleaching. This is critical information no one wants to talk about. Unless the silence is broken, the mill will smell like rotten eggs, and dioxins will end up in the Ouachita River. Modern mills do not use chlorine and there are ways to reduce the stench. Chlorine is red flag suggesting Sun Paper uses a low-tech, low-cost manufacturing processes wherever it can. Their newest mill is a 300,000 tons per year in Laos, near Vietnam and China. In the fluff world, 700,000 tons per year is a “big-ass” mill with massive emissions.
When the mill was announced in December 2015, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) asked El Dorado for money on the front-end of the negotiations. Business leaders said no: “China is the most polluted country in the world and they want to come here because Arkansas has some of the softest pollution control laws in the country,” said Richard Mason. He had concerns on water and air pollution, and work conditions: “This is a bad deal. You don’t need those jobs in El Dorado. You need quality jobs, and those jobs are the lowest of the low.” The City Council approved the funds.
The memorandum was signed in April 2016, a last minute “victory” over Mississippi, and Gov. Hutchinson praised Chairman Li for his brilliance and tough negotiation. The message was clear: this is a big win for Arkansas, the battle was bloody, time to celebrate. A $50,000 bonus to AEDC’s Mike Preston sealed the deal.
Arkadelphia tried to silence detractors by downplaying environmental and economic concerns: “This is essentially an odorless technology. I don’t think we will have a negative consequence of just the smell. We are growing so many more trees than we are taking out. The Economic Development Corporation of Clark County pledged $10 million for Sun Paper and a 65-percent tax abatement. As a result, the county will receive a $1.3 billion investment,” said Eric Hughes. Using fluff accounting this looks like a good deal, but it’s not. Sun Paper, a Chinese private corporation, is the sole owner.
Social cost of Silence
Chairman Li wanted the Ouachita River and Clark County forests, and a permit to pollute air and water. The $260 million, or whatever the total amount of incentives is, paid by Arkansas taxpayers, is chump change. To keep the illusion, AEDC refuses to disclose the total amount, or perform due diligence on the deal: if it is good for China, it is good enough for Arkansas.
Environmental discrimination
Low-income minority communities will pay the social costs of wastewater pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, and particulate matter from the smoke of burning wood to power the mill. The costs of poor public health are real, tangible, cumulative, and devastating for Arkansas and Louisiana. The impact will be felt for generations.
Culture of Silence
When Larry Smith, the Honorable Mayor of Cave Springs told me, “There is nothing you can do to stop SWEPCO,” I was stunned. I did not know at the time Larry had a special relationship with the utilities. Pat Costner, Save the Ozarks, Martha Peine, Leon Wilmoth, and everyone in Eureka Springs raised their voices, as mighty people, to stop a tragedy. Why are the people of Arkansas and Clark County silent? Did someone tell them “there is nothing you can do?”
Breaking the Silence
The fluff is not a done deal. With silence and expedited permits AEDC will build the mill. Please call Mike Preston, Executive Director AEDC, (501) 682-7351 and ask him to break the silence.
Dr. Luis Contreras
Unless we raise our voice asking for transparency and full disclosure, the mill will be built ignoring pollution, road congestion and deforestation.
AEDC must perform due diligence before spending another dime. This should not be done by AEDC, they have a biased view of the “sale.”
An independent professional evaluation of the total costs and benefits, including all the external social costs for the entire Ouachita River is the only way to avoid the Big Bad Wolf.
This is a must for Arkansas and Louisiana downstream of the River