We may not know them, but we are inextricably linked.

As unfamiliar as their names or products may be to people along the southern rim of Lake Michigan, they are our lake brethren.

The facilities listed as lake basin polluters in the data files of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are not just buildings.

They are not just small farms or large campuses lassoed by miles of train tracks.

Their histories and hometowns may be different, but like many communities in Northwest Indiana, their foundations are built on the need for water.

The Times spent eight months investigating -- and in some cases visiting -- 68 companies listed as having discharged chemicals into Lake Michigan or the many waterways in the lake's basin in 2005 and 2006. Along the way were companies that, though possibly major contributors to industrial pollution, also are the lifeblood of communities that span four states.

The following are a few of their stories, told not just by company officials but by the workers and those whose homes share space and waterways with the industrial sites:

Georgia-Pacific, Green Bay, Wis.

If you use Angel Soft toilet paper or Sparkle paper towels, there's a good chance they came from the Broadway Street Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Green Bay.

At 5 million square feet, it's the largest of the company's Green Bay sites and home to the world's largest tissue-recycling operation, the company reports.

The plant is the second-largest discharger of industrial chemicals to the lake basin, releasing 953,782 pounds of materials into the Fox River -- a Lake Michigan tributary -- in 2006, EPA data show.

Visitors to the facility's campus are reminded of the Packers pride that so much of the city wears. They drive to the plant's entrance on Lombardi Avenue, named for the football team's famous coach and winner of Super Bowls I and II.

Officials at Georgia-Pacific denied The Times access to the plant, citing a desire to restrict access to its local media.

But in a written statement, the company described its wastewater treatment, which takes place in an on-site plant.

First, solids created by the paper-making process are removed from the water, which is then aerated to treat the biological oxygen demand, or BOD, the oxygen that is used in breaking down the water's organisms.

Generally, the higher the BOD, the more oxygen has been consumed to break down material.

There is a second treatment to eliminate biological solids, then a sludge process removes phosphorus, which, if accumulated over time in water bodies, can spark overwhelming plant growth that consumes the water's oxygen supply and threaten aquatic life.

The company concedes that "nitrates have been reportable" at the plant. According to the EPA, more than 99 percent, or 950,000 pounds, of the plant's 2006 discharges were nitrate compounds, a chemical mix of nitrogen and oxygen.

Exposure to excessive nitrates can have short- and long-term health effects, including shortness of breath, hemorrhaging of the spleen and even death. But most industrial discharges of nitrate compounds in the lake basin aren't in high enough quantities to pose those kinds of health hazards, experts have told The Times.

Officials call the company's compliance record "exemplary," saying its discharges of suspended solids, a silty treatment byproduct, have been below 5 percent of its permitted levels for 10 years.

What's not exemplary is the quality of the water in the Fox River.

For decades, discharges into the Fox from paper mills producing carbonless paper left the river heavily contaminated with PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. PCBs have been linked to human developmental and reproductive problems and possibly cancer, environmental experts say.

Georgia-Pacific is one of six companies charged with funding and designing the river's dredging project, aimed to remove as many of the PCBs as possible.

If Danielle McQuaid had it her way, she might send her dry cleaning bill to Georgia-Pacific or other companies dumping into the Fox and area waterways.
Digging through the closet of her home a couple of blocks from the mill, McQuaid held up what she says was once an expensive white sweater. It's now the dingy shade of cream of potato soup. A year of washing it in Green Bay water has tinged it beige, she said.

McQuaid said she is torn over her feelings about Georgia-Pacific. The company pollutes the water but also provides the city with important jobs, she said. The company reports it provides 2,300 jobs at the Broadway site alone.

"It's a highly recognized company," she said. "People aren't going to complain about it."

Full Story: http://nwi.com/articles/2008/04/21/special/water/
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