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 Publication: Pulp & Paper Magazine ManagementBowater's Calhoun Mill at Center of Fog-Related Highway Pileup DisputeBY JAMES McLAREN, News EditorDECKAtmospheric inversions cause a few mills problems with nearby highways and airportsU.S. INTERSTATE HIGHWAY 75 stretches from Saulte Ste. Marie, Mich., to Miami, Fla., and it carries about 30,000 automobiles every day where it crosses the Hiwassee River in Tennessee. Shortly after 9 a.m. on Dec. 11, 1990, 99 vehicles were involved in a fiery pileup on both sides of the fog-shrouded roadway, leaving 12 people dead and up to 50 others injured. It was the deadliest wreck in the state in more than 20 years. It was not the first killer pileup near the Calhoun exit. There were six prior accidents in dense fog on the roadway; five between 1974 and 1978 and a three-fatality crash in 1979. Eighteen people have lost their lives and about 130 have been injured. News reports of the 1990 crash described tractor-trailer rigs and cars wrapped together like the layers of an onion. Numerous vehicles burst into flames after careening into each other in zero-visibility. Some cars were crushed beyond recognition. Wreckage spread for about a mile. Among many survivors and relatives of those killed, 44 plaintiffs insisted for four years that steam from Bowater Inc.'s newsprint mill in Calhoun, located about two miles from the highway, was largely to blame for the blinding fog. The plant, which employs about 1,600 workers, is one of the largest pulp and paper mills in North America, producing 836,000 tons of groundwood papers and 42,000 tons of market pulp last year. In an out-of-court settlement earlier this year, Bowater awarded $11 million to the plaintiffs after spending up to $10 million to defend itself in the case. The company denies any responsibility for the accident. "It is an accepted fact of legal and business life that lawsuits are sometimes less expensive to settle than to defend," Bowater vice president Ecton Manning told the media. "Plaintiffs' counsel are clearly aware that when the game is legal lotto, protracted confrontations improve their odds independent of the merits of the case." The National Transportation Safety Board in 1992 said the cause of the accident was motorist error in fog conditions, but the 44 plaintiffs, who represent about two-thirds of those impacted, continued their case. It was scheduled to begin Feb. 1 in Hamilton County Circuit Court and would have involved more than 300 witnesses and a dozen experts. "This lawsuit made it costly for Bowater to keep acting the same way," said Huntsville, Ala., attorney Douglas Fees, who represented the majority of plaintiffs. Bowater made several financial settlements in the previous accidents but has never admitted liability. Late last year it undertook a two-year study of the fog. "From a cold and calculating standpoint," said Fees, "it was cheaper to settle than make changes." The Chattanooga Times reported that Tennessee officials killed plans in 1980 for a state study of the fog. The state in 1992 settled lawsuits related to the 1990 crash, charging it with negligence for about $1 million. The highway was built 21 years after the mill was opened in 1952. Critical evidence in the case, according to Fees, is a video tape an area resident recorded the morning of the accident. The tape and still frame photos reveal steam fog coming off Bowater's aeration ponds and converging on the highway, Fees said. Bowater's 235-acre aeration pond No. 4 lies underneath the roadway. It is now closed except for emergency requirements. The plant emits about 2 million tons of water vapor daily. PRECEDENCE. Other critical evidence in the crash lawsuit comes from previous studies of earlier fog problems at the Bowater mill and at other pulp and paper mills in the U.S., Canada, and France, according to Fees. These include Calhoun in 1979, Westvaco Corp.'s mill in North Charleston, S.C., in 1984, and Weyerhaeuser Co.'s mill in Kamloops, B.C., in the early 1970s. Previous studies at Calhoun said on cold, clear nights in fall or early spring there is an atmospheric inversion in the low-lying area which traps moisture-laden warmer air closer to the ground. Industrial emissions add to the fog. An Olin Corp. chemical plant located closer to the highway than the paper mill was named in the original crash lawsuit, but experts ruled that Olin was less than 5% of the problem that morning, Fees explained. On Mar. 12, 1990, a highway crash in fog killed three motorists on the Tower Drive Bridge in Green Bay, Wis. A meteorologist disagreed with early police statements that emissions from James River Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., and Green Bay Packaging Inc. contributed to the thick white cloud that reduced visibility to less than 30 feet. The alleged impact of Westvaco's Charleston mill on a nearby highway resulted in a rerouting of the road. Weyerhaeuser in 1971 sought to solve its Kamloops mill's impact on visibility at nearby Fulton Field airport, a fog problem especially in winter that sometimes persisted for extended periods. Located in a deep valley in interior British Columbia, the mill identified two atmospheric inversion levels, one near the ground and one in the 500- to 1,000-ft level. In an estimated C$7-million solution that was part of an expansion project, the company constructed a steam pipeline up a hillside for several hundred feet to emit vapor above the inversion levels. The Kamloops mill's effluent ponds are located at the river level alongside a two-lane road to a local landfill. In winter, steam from the ponds occasionally fogs the road, and authorities have placed traffic signs and reflectors to warn drivers. "The industry has known since the 1960s and 70s," attorney Fees said, "implement control technologies to minimize fog. Bowater stuck its head in the sand." "Bowater does not believe it's part of the fogging problems in that area," Bowater spokesman Robert Leahy told ABC's Day One program last year. There have been no major traffic accidents at the Calhoun highway site since a $4.5-million fog warning system of weather stations, speed and fog detectors, warning lights, and signs was installed last year. The new system was first tested in February when heavy fog occurred in the Hiwassee River area reducing visibility to less than 100 ft. But Fees said the roadway still is not safe. "Only when Bowater changes their wastewater treatment system . . . and implements control technology such as heat exchangers and condensers . . . will the interstate be safe. We're not talking about spending money that will break a company," he said.
  
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