IP Explosion: Officials Say No Impact On Drinking Water

February 6, 2017

The explosion two weeks ago at International Paper in Cantonment has had no impact on the drinking water supply in the area, according to officials with the Unified Command.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has inspected the local drinking water system and found zero impact related to the incident. Water quality samples are being taken from 13 locations in the impacted area.

In an abundance of caution, drinking water samples were taken from both ECUA and Gonzalez systems and test results confirmed the material is not in the drinking water.

There are no licensed private drinking water wells within in the community.

The Unified Command is comprised of International Paper, Escambia County EMA/Public Safety, Florida Department of Health, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Pictured top: Gonzalez Utilities, along with ECUA, Farm Hill and Cottate Hill utilities serve the Cantonment area. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

3 Responses to “IP Explosion: Officials Say No Impact On Drinking Water”

  1. David Huie Green on February 7th, 2017 12:36 am

    REGARDING:
    “Isn’t the mill discharging this black liquor on a continuing basis to end up in Perdido Bay?”

    No, black liquor is burned as a biofuel after concentration by evaporators and burned in a recovery boiler to produce energy and recover the cooking chemicals in a very efficient recycling process. Before it is burned, it is also a valuable chemical feedstock rather than petrochemicals.

    What Perdido Bay needs to reduce pollutants is fewer people around it dumping their fertilize and other waste and garbage. Failing that, it needs subsurface oxygen injection to feed aerobic bacteria to break down the sawdust from 1900, long before there was a paper mill.

    David for biofuels and recycling

  2. old man on February 6th, 2017 7:52 pm

    i may be wrong but several years ago the mill had a problem with the E P A about perido bay now any discharge that goes into the creek and perido bay is monitored by E P A i know because i owned two houses on perido bay

  3. bewildered on February 6th, 2017 10:34 am

    Isn’t the mill discharging this black liquor on a continuing basis to end up in Perdido Bay? Sure, it’s being filtered first by wetlands – but if it is toxic – sooner or later it would affect thousands of residents around the Bay.