Special Report No. 71-02: A Survey of Pulp and Paper Industry Expenditures and Accomplishments in Receiving Water Quality Protection Programs

  During 1970 the National Council conducted the third in a series of industry-wide surveys of expenditures and operating costs for individual mill stream improvement programs. The first of these was conducted by NCASI as part of an NAM-sponsored survey of industrial water use in 1960, which was published in 1965 as "Water in Industry - A Survey of Water Use in Industry". It indicated that as of the end of 1959 replacement costs of all existing waste treatment facilities totaled $100 million, while annual operating costs equaled $14 million. The second survey was conducted in 1966 and was reported on at the NCASI Annual Meeting of Members in February 1967. It revealed that through 1965 the industry had spent $168 million on stream improvement facilities with a replacement value of $217 million. The survey data permitted projections indicating that by 1969 total capital expenditures would reach $367 million. It also found that total annualized charges had reached $27 million, or 62 cents per ton of paper and board produced.  The third survey, whose results are presented in summary form in this report, was designed to determine the magnitude of such capital expenditures through 1969, along with projections for 1970 through 1972. In addition the Operating Committee requested that data be gathered indicating the extent to which manpower resources are allocated to this effort, and the effect of capital and operating expenditures on selected parameters of effluent load reaching receiving waters, specifically BOD and suspended solids. Information was also gathered on the extent of effluent treatment and the nature of stream improvement facilities in use as of the end of 1969. Recognizing the fact that in-process loss control measures are frequently undertaken in response to receiving water quality protection needs, and can serve to reduce the cost for external treatment measures, the industry was requested to furnish cost data for the incremental capital costs for in-plant control facilities constructed in direct recognition of such needs.