Georgia Pacific Approves $60 Million Project at Florida Mill

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Georgia-Pacific (NYSE: GP) (Atlanta, Georgia) has started demolition work in preparation for a $60 million project (PEC 05002449) at a kraft pulp and paper mill (PLANT 1517282) in Palatka, Florida. GP's board recently approved a project that will add a new oxygen delignification unit and three washing lines, to replace four existing brownstock washing lines.

The review and selection of an engineering firm and major equipment suppliers for the project is presently underway. Construction will start near the end of the year with startup of the new washers and delignification unit expected by early 2006.

In 2001, the mill completed the installation of a new three-stage elemental chlorine free bleach plant that was projected to reduce water usage to around four million gallons per day. This project will allow the mill to further reduce water consumption and comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) MACT I mandate, regarding the collection and treatment of low volume high concentration (LVHC) gases.

Operations at the Palatka site began in 1947, under Hudson Pulp and Paper, as a single machine mill with a workforce of 279. Georgia-Pacific acquired the mill in 1979. Today the mill employs over 1,200 workers and has two kraft machines and several tissue machines, along with complete tissue converting operation, producing about 527,000 tons of paper products annually.

According to Industrialinfo.com's Online Plant Directory for the southeast region, there are 4,500 operational power and industrial manufacturing plants in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, packaging, paper, building products, pulp and related chemicals. With annual sales of more than $25 billion, the company employs approximately 71,000 people at 600 locations in North America and Europe.