Severe drought gripping the southeast is causing some extra odor near the local Weyerhaeuser paper mill, and the company is looking into ways to address the issue.
The mill, located south of Columbus off of Carson Road, draws water for use in the milling process from the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, according to Monte Simpson, government relations manager for the Federal Way, Washington-based manufacturer. The water is returned to the river after it’s treated at the plant.
Drought conditions have lowered the river’s water levels, Simpson said, so the mill is withholding more water before returning it to the river.
“We’re electing to hold more water in our ponds versus releasing it into the low river flow, which would not be healthy,” Simpson said. “We’re holding more treated effluent [wastewater discharge from the plant] than we normally do because of that situation.
“With more volume, there’s more surface-air contact for that effluent and it creates more odor than it normally would,” he added.
Area residents have noticed the stench, some even calling the plant to complain. Simpson said Weyerhaeuser is taking steps to address the issue.
“We’re taking some extended measures to find some additional treatment options that we can add to the effluent to reduce the smell,” he said.
Simpson said the mill will also build additional holding ponds to store effluent if the drought remains. He said he wasn’t aware of the cost of the potential measures.
Catherine Colbert, who lives near the plant, said the smell has been stronger than normal.
“It’s a little stronger than usual, but the smell is pretty much the same,” she said. “It’s been like that for a few days now.”
Roy Tribble, another resident who lives near the paper mill, said he normally can’t smell odors from the plant because he lives so close to it that the wind pushes them away before they can settle. He said he has smelled odors from the plant recently, but said they haven’t been a big issue.
“It’s not what I’d call extremely bad,” he said. “It’s nothing strong, and nothing really bothering me. It’s just an off-beat odor.”
The drought
Mississippi State Climatologist Mike Brown said about 90 percent of Mississippi is in a drought. Only a few counties near the coast weren’t suffering some level of drought conditions as of Thursday.
The entire northern half of Mississippi is in at least a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and much of south Mississippi is experiencing abnormally dry conditions. A significant part of the state, including all of the Golden Triangle, is in severe or extreme drought.
Brown said drought levels are based on how far below normal an area’s precipitation is.
“For an extreme drought, we’re looking at six to eight inches of rain that would be needed to get back to normal,” Brown said. “You don’t want that all at one time — there would be an excessive amount of runoff and it wouldn’t do any good.”
Brown said drought conditions will likely last at least through mid-November, when conditions may begin to shift toward wetter weather.
National Weather Service Senior Service Hydrologist Marty Pope in Jackson said the area surrounding the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway — specifically northern Lowndes County and Monroe County — have seen particularly dry conditions lately.
Pope said the area has received about 5-10 percent of normal rainfall for the past 30 days. He said conditions weren’t much better in the month before that.
“It’s been one of the worst areas in the state, around the upper part of the Tombigbee,” he said. “It’s been more extensive than most of the state for sure. It’s still the driest area of the state even going back a year.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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