ABSTRACT
The U.S. pulp and paper industry comprises three primary types of producers: (1) pulp mills, manufacturing pulp from wood and recycled ber; (2) paper mills, manufacturing paper from wood and recycled pulp; and (3) paperboard mills, manufacturing paperboard products from this same wood and recycled ber pulp (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] 2002; Kramer et al. 2009). The paper and pulp industry is the largest industrial process water user in the United States (U.S. EPA 2006). Surveys from 1975 found an average water use of 26,700 gal/T-product for the pulp and paper industry. By 1988, this amount dropped to approximately 17,500 gal/T-product (Ellis et al. 2000). By 2000, from 4000 to 12,000 gallons of water were consumed per T of product in a typical pulp and paper mill (U.S. EPA 2002). Along with water use, reduction has been a signicant drop in wastewater production, 69% reduction in wastewater production between 1959 and 2006 (NCASI 2013a), and a >75% total suspended solid (TSS) and >85% biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) efuent load reduction (lb/T-product) between 1975 and 2010 (NCASI 2013b).
