Kraft mill to start up today

Abitibi-Consolidated’s kraft mill was expected to be up-and-running again later today after shutting down yesterday for boiler and pipe repairs.
The mill was shut down by 6:30 a.m. yesterday after a pipe–carrying waste water at a rate of 500 gallons per minute–was found leaking at around 3 a.m.
The effluent, which poured into Rainy River, left a streak of foam visible for several kilometres west of the mill. But it was not expected to cause any serious harm as it was only half of the mill’s maximum allowable discharge.
“We’ll do an investigation but I don’t anticipate any impact,” John Barr, regional supervisor for the Ministry of the Environment, had said yesterday.
The break in the pipe forced the mill to shut down a day before it was already scheduled to stop production in order to repair a problem with the boilers.
“We had some work that we had to do, some boiler work, and we are anticipating to be starting late today,” Gary Rogozinski, Pulping and Utilities Technical Superintendent for Abitibi here, said this morning.
Once all repairs have been made, it’s expected to take 10-12 hours to heat up the mill’s boilers before production can resume.
In related news, the mill’s regular spring shutdown for repairs and maintenance has been pushed back to June this year rather than May.