N.C.'s largest paper recycling mill, located in Sylva, is growing, and so is concern

I'm not sure why I haven't heard more about in area media about the expansion plans of Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co.. Maybe I haven't been paying attention. Luckily, the Southern Highland Reader has.

The blog has been steadfastly reporting on expansion plans, and concerns that the giant cardboard manufacturing plant, which xxxxx, might switch from wood chips to coal or rubber pellets to fire its operation.

Here's the set-up, from the Southern Highland Reader:

Last month, Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co., North Carolina’s largest recycling plant, announced an expansion that will add over 60 full-time jobs. The company makes corrugating medium for cardboard — the zig-zag paper that goes between the two outer layers of liner board to give it rigidity — from 100% recycled cardboard. Jackson Paper says it purchases over 100,000 tons of recycled cardboard each year from recycling centers across the region.

It employs 116 full time employees with an annual payroll of about $6 million.

In its first phase of expansion, Jackson Paper will begin making “complete” cardboard by purchasing liner board material and using its own corrugating medium to make the final product. It will move into and equip the empty Chasam plant on Scotts Creek road for this purpose.

In the long term, Jackson Paper plans to build an additional 139,000-square-foot facility to manufacture its own liner board.

The expansion comes after a year-and-a-half of behind-the-scenes finagling with state and local officials. Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver played a significant role, and the Jackson County Board of Commissioners went on to lend Jackson Paper a half-million dollars.

...

When Sylva enacted zoning, almost thirty years ago, the maximum industrial structure height was inadvertently set lower than the existing mill’s height. This was discovered during planning for Jackson Paper’s expansion, and the town of Sylva’s board of commissioners subsequently voted to raise the height limit.

Clean air activist Avram Friedman, Executive Director of the Canary Coalition, took exception, arguing that the zoning height difference was the only leverage the town had to ensure that the plant wouldn’t switch from its current wood chip fuel source to coal or rubber pellets — sources that its current air quality permit would allow, and that might seriously impact the town.

Here's the follow-up:

SYLVA–Officials at Jackson Paper Manufacturing Company in Sylva said Thursday that a new state-of-the-art boiler, planned for phase two of the company’s announced expansion, is a wood-burning system.

“It would be extraordinarily expensive to convert for use with other fuel sources,” said Lydia Carrington, spokesperson for the company.

Jackson Paper’s air quality permits allow it to burn coal, rubber pellets or natural gas, as long as it meets current air quality standards.

The boiler will be housed in a new addition to the Jackson Paper mill, for which the Sylva Town Board recently amended its industrial zoning regulations regarding structure height.

That change brought about complaints and eventually a lawsuit from four Sylva residents and the Sylva-based Canary Coalition, a clean air advocacy group.

Thanks to the Southern Highland Reader for keeping us in the loop.