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Ask Us: What Happened At International Paper?
November 15, 2012
Numerous readers contacted NorthEscambia.com over the past couple of days wanting to know what happened at International Paper in Cantonment. For the first time that many could remember (“In 45 years, I’ve never seen that,” wrote one reader), the Cantonment paper mill stood silent and dark with no steam rising skyward.
It was all part of a “cold shutdown”, said Janice Holmes, communications manager for IP. The planned event allowed for maintenance work to be conducted in the facility.
Pictured: International Paper in Cantonment sites idle late Wednesday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
24 Responses to “Ask Us: What Happened At International Paper?”
i worked that shutdown this past week. was one hecktic week. but we got the job done.
If the mill shut down there would a lot more jobs lost, than the mill workers…Construction workers, loggers, truck drivers, machanics,tire shops,foresters, road builders. fueling stations, equipment dealers and repairmen, railroad workers, and the list goes on and on. Just think of the families the mill and the other companies, feeds, house’s, and clothes. And to think someone wants to see it closed down. May God have mercy on you.
@ joey McCall thank you i am sorry the FREE car wash doesn’t work right all the time. @4295cj just wants to complain
@ Bob…”I’ve lived here 25 years south of the mill. The smell still impacts my home when the wind is from the south.”
The Cantonment paper mill was formed in 1941 as Florida Pulp & Paper, and since then has had three successful owners: St. Regis, Champion, and now International Paper. If you bought your home 25 yrs ago, you knew it was located ‘south’ of a mill that had been established for quite some time. I may not have a degree in wind dynamics, but I know if you live south of the mill and the wind is blowing from the south, as you state, do you think you’re smelling something else? I have a solution for the inconvenience of the mill’s car wash not working properly at times, DON’T USE IT!
That’s the smell of money!
@ Bob, 25 years ago when you moved near the mill, the smell was awful. The smell has been improved by very large environmental standards (both in water and air quality). I have smelled the mill to long, 10 years ago when the mill started implementing the new environmental regulations. I have no sympathy for you since you bought a house effected by a mill located 40 years prior. I hope to have my child to continue to live the life we are able to provide for her now. Bob you buy house near a paper mill and now hope to live long enough to see it closed. I’ll be more than glad to allow my mortgage company to accept checks from you for my house payment every month.
Amen Bobby. I guess I should not complain about waiting for the train.
My Father retired from Monsanto. He began employment there right after the plant came online. I should not say a word about the Mill and it’s three successive owners.
Monsanto was no slouch in the emessions department, back in the day.
My grandfather worked there for 25 years and retired early in 1981 due to a stroke (back when it was St Regis). He drove from Atmore all of those years and supported the family well on what he made there. He told lots of stories about his old coworkers.
Wow Bob… so you hope you live to see the employees laid off, the contractors put out of business, the local restaurants and gas stations impacted…..
I think it would be super easier just for you to move and inconvenience just YOU instead of the whole county!
Hey Bob 25 years ago the mill was already there so why did you move to where you could smell the mill. The paper mill provides well paying jobs for our citizens.
Lots of local guys have been working the shut down and giving everyone else a little time off! My husband has been working nights at the mill since monday!
Seen on a bumper sticker: “If you object to logging, use plastic toilet paper”.
Should also say: “If you object to paper mills, use plastic toilet paper”.
International Paper is one of the area’s largest employers. The last thing this area needs now or ever is to lose good-paying jobs.
I am VERY glad that IP mill is open. I have a job and hope to keep it,to do silly thigs like pay for water,gas,elect.,food ect… I am sorry people have to wait for the railroad or large trucks. They also want to pay bills!!!!
I am very glad the Cantonment mill is still open. It provides jobs to many. Many mills have been closed and many jobs lost. Families that lose everything. The men and women who are employees there, work very hard. During this Cold Mill Outage, they are required to work 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week for almost one month. Keep in mind this runs into Thanksgiving. So Bob, I hope this mill stays open and running for many, many more years to come.
My whole life I have smelled that smell for others it may smell bad but to me it smells like home!
I would rather smell the stink coming from the plant and knowing people are gainfully employed than seeing it close and people go hungery and homeless.
Eveyone grips about Paper Mills no matter what the companies do to clean up there procedures…. Why dont you trying using the plastic bags you save from the grocery store for toilet paper…. then you might appreciate what these plants do!!!
Instrument fitters, pipefitters, boilermakers, millwrights, the list goes on and on of people that earn a living working in plants like this one.
Bob I hope you never see that mill close! I know a few men still left out there and they are hard working me and this commuity needs that mill! If it closes then maybe they can mail all their Gulf Power Bills to your house. The arrogance to think you are the only one that matters. I love to smell that mill It means I am home!!
@Willis I believe you smelled the mill to long. I’ve lived here 25 years south of the mill. The smell still impacts my home when the wind is from the south. The treatment plant has been shut down for a long time now so don’t blame the smell on it. I hope I live long enough to see that mill shut down when they determine there pipeline to perdido bay filter beds doesn’t work.
2007, 2004, 2001 are the most recent CMO at the Cantonment facility. Most of the smell has been eliminated over the last 10 years or so. The most recent smell comes from sewage dumping station on 297a. The mill would have to be enormous in size to have the number of rail traffic that crosses Hwy 29. Grantee many of those rail cars are loaded or unloaded at the mill. The large number of tracks located at the mill are used for Alabama ;Gulf Coast Railroad, and CSX to stage or swap rail cars. There is also another set of tracks that the rail road uses to repair cars.
and….the air was odor free!
I can remember days as a child when the burnt orange colored smoke of nitric acid fumes, trapped by inversion layers of atmosphere, would be so bad it was difficult to breath. I remember vehicles, swing sets ect reduced to rust. I also remember how many Cantoment Village residents succumbed to cancer over the years. It was pure maddness to allow the discharge of the mill to be dumped into Perdido Bay via Eleven Mile Creek.
Much has been done over the years to improve the emmissions of the plant. I am glad that people have opportunity for employment there, but I resent having to wait in long traffic lines for the rail cars being delivered and picked up there. I also dislike the fact that the redlight in front of the mill, turns red immediately upon the entery or exit of wood trucks. I do find the carwash, which is clogged with rust sediment most of the time, a small compensation. Is there a maintenance superindendant for the mill?
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I have lived here all my life and I never saw the plant shut down for anything. I am sure it did for maintenance but I have never been by when the steam wasn’t billowing out. My granddaddy retired from there years ago…it has be the one constant in Pensacola. I used to make fun of the smell growing up and granddaddy would say, “don’t talk about that smell boy …that’s your beans and cornbread.” …I’ve never forgot that …he meant ,that is how he fed his family. I miss him.
Nothing new, the mill goes down every few years for a cold mill outage. The last cold mill outage was November 2007.