Mill Seeks To Irrigate Tree Crop With Wastewater

This one seems like a natural.

Inland Empire Paper Co. is looking for two things: another source of wood fiber for its Millwood operation and a new place to pump some of the wastewater the mill produces each day.

Company officials have asked the state for permission to use the effluent to irrigate a crop of poplar trees near IEP’s Argonne Road mill.

“Basically, we are killing two birds with one stone,” said Wayne Andresen, IEP vice president and general manager.

The nearly 3.5 million gallons of wastewater produced at the mill each day now is pumped into the Spokane River, said Pat Hallinan of the Washington state Department of Ecology.

Discharges are especially high during the summer, Hallinan said.

The state wants the company to reduce the amount of wastewater it pumps into the river over the coming years, he added.

“They’re looking at alternative ways to dispose of it,” Hallinan said.

Under the poplar proposal, the company would divert some of the water now going into the river onto nine acres adjacent to the mill.

The land would be planted with hybrid poplars, fast-growing trees that suck up a lot of water. The company then would harvest those trees for use in the mill, Andresen said.

Company officials hope to start the project this spring, he said.

If the 9-acre test plot proves successful, the irrigation system would be expanded to 98 acres the company owns on the north side of the river, Andresen added.

Similar projects in other parts of the state have proved successful, he said. Poplars grow to a usable size in only five to seven years.

“It’s really a fast turnaround,” Andresen said.

The only glitch could come if too much effluent seeps through the ground and into the underlying aquifer, which supplies drinking water to much of the Spokane area, Hallinan said.

“But that shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “Poplars like that tend to use up a lot of water.”

Ecology will take written comments on the plan until April 12. If no one requests a public hearing, the project could move forward immediately thereafter.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CARE TO COMMENT? People interested in commenting on the Inland Empire Paper Co. plan to pump wastewater onto a 9-acre grove of poplar trees must do so before April 12. Letters should be sent to the Washington Department of Ecology, Water Quality Section, Permit Coordinator, Eastern Regional Office, 4601 N. Monroe, Suite 202, Spokane, WA 99205. Free copies of the plan are available at the same address.