CCBaggett@aol.com
Date: 04/25/02-04:49:55 PM Z
In a message dated 4/25/02 3:39:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, acolyta@napc.com
writes:
> You bring up an excellent point. I was traveling in Western North Carolina,
> enjoying the beauty of the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky mountains. I was
> in
> a part of the state where town centers are the size of one city block. For
> a
> ways down a particular road Ikept thinking to myself "what is that godawful
> stench?" After a few bends in the road the smokestacks appeared. I should
> have photographed it now that I think about it - a great industrial
> anomaly,
> all steel and smoke and smell - in the middle of this beautiful green
> place.
> Maybe I should learn how to make paper.
>
> Cheers,
> Christine in a state of painful awareness as opposed to blissful ignorance.
>
>
>
Christine,
I grew up in Eastern North Carolina and worked in a paper mill to earn
money for college. You can't smell it inside. All the Sulfur compounds rise
up out of the digesters where the wood chips are converted to pulp. However,
when you walk outside at 6:00 in the morning after the graveyard shift, the
odor hits you in the face like a board. They had a big car wash for all the
cars to drive through on the way out to get the crud off. My Mother made me
take my clothes off on the back porch before she would let me in the house.
On the positive side, the softwoods that are used for wood pulp mature in 15
to 20 years so with proper forestry it is a renewable resource. There remain,
of course, the Sulfur compounds to deal with.
Cheers,
Charlie
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