The Menominee Fire Department announced last week that a fire was officially extinguished at Resolute Forest Products’ recycled bleached kraft pulp mill in Menominee, Michigan.
Officials say they found no hotspots after a thorough inspection by field personnel and thermal imaging by drones, but additional hotspots are expected to emerge over the course of the next week as material is removed from the site. Please note that this can occur. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which spearheads air and water monitoring efforts, has the Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to ensure that the site It announced it would lead the remaining fire-related activities, including cleaning and water management and treatment. .
According to the EPA, 68 fire departments in Michigan and Wisconsin helped with the blaze for 16 days.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said Menominee Fire Chief Mark Petersen at a press conference last week.
The fire started around 11:00 pm on October 6th at the Resolute warehouse leased by KK Integrated Logistics and jumped to a storage warehouse leased by Johnson Controls. The mill’s warehouse held waste paper bales used to make Recycled Bleached Kraft (RBK) pulp.
The facility produced 171,000 tons of RBK pulp per year.
Petersen said bales, waste paper and pulp were piled up “over 10 feet high.”
“First responders met with Resolute employees and were instructed to head to the fire,” he said in the latest update. “The crew carried out an active internal assault on the fire. I moved to a shooting attack.”
The building is 560,000 square feet, and officials say 420,000 square feet were lost “to total destruction.”
Environmental officials in both Michigan and Wisconsin are concerned that the fire spill could cause a surge in PFAS chemicals in the Menominee River that could affect drinking water in the cities of Menominee and Marinette, Michigan. I was.
In Marinette water, PFHxA compounds spiked to 331 ppt, and low levels of other PFAS compounds, 6:2-FTS, PFPES, PFBA, PFOA, PFBS, and PFHpA were also detected. However, EGLE officials said the levels were not considered harmful and residents were advised to continue using the city’s drinking water.
“More PFAS compounds were detected at background levels and higher concentrations than before,” said Michael Bolf of EGLE’s Drinking Water Division. “However, it is very important to note that despite these detections, all of the treated water samples we saw were below Michigan’s maximum contamination levels.”
The EPA says it will notify residents immediately if any changes in public health risks are identified.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency on October 13, stepping up state assistance and technical assistance to fight the fires.
At the time, Resolute said that the factory’s machinery “existed no significant damage”, but factory operations were suspended until at least October, with no timetable given as to when it might resume.
