EVERETT — Fines may be coming because of Kimberly-Clark’s massive smoldering pile of wood waste.
The state just issued the company with a violation notice, the first step that’s taken when a company is accused of violating state environmental laws.
The smoldering pile, just east of E. Grand Avenue, has been burning at least since early August, and residents of the Riverside neighborhood say they have been bothered by the smoke almost as long. However, the state says no one complained until Sept. 27.
It is not certain whether the company will be fined for violations of state and federal air-quality laws said Larry Altose, a spokesman with the state Department of Ecology.
“The company has been very forthcoming with us,” Altose said. “They seem to find the situation not acceptable and are doing something about it.”
Four days before the state put the tissue maker on notice, Kimberly-Clark sent the Department of Ecology a letter outlining how it planned to extinguish the fire and minimize smoke billowing into the neighborhood.
Christine Kurtz, the Everett plant’s environmental manager, said the company plans to hand over an even more detailed action plan to the state this week.
The company faces fines of up to $10,000 a day for each air quality violation.
Earlier this year, Kimberly-Clark was fined $16,000 by the state for a mishap at its waterfront mill that violated air-quality laws and covered much of the city with a potent rotten-egg smell for two days in April.
The latest apparent violation comes from a mountain of shredded bark and other wood scrap called “hog fuel” that spontaneously caught fire at a storage yard in August.
The material is burned in a Snohomish County Public Utilities-owned co-generation boiler at the mill to create steam. The steam is used in paper-making and generates electricity.
The company typically stores as much as 60,000 tons of the material at the site near the Snohomish River, but because of a downed boiler at its waterfront plant, it began stockpiling the fuel. The pile grew to as much as 120,000 tons. Kimberly-Clark has been unable to extinguish the smoldering fire.
Kimberly-Clark has about 850 employees in Everett and produces about 1 million rolls of toilet paper and other paper products a day.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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