Special Report No. 79-03: A Survey of Pulp and Paper Industry Environmental Protection Expenditures – 1978

  The attached special report summarizes the findings of the National Council's survey of industry environmental expenditures during 1978, which was conducted during the first half of 1979. Based on questionnaire information solicited at the corporate level, it also contains projections of capital expenditures planned for 1979. All such capital expenditures are categorized for report purposes among air and water quality protection and solid waste management at the point of primary pulp and paper manufacture. The report was made possible only by the valued participation of numerous corporate personnel who translated internal data into the format required by the questionnaire. The report itself addresses a number of questions related to the magnitude of such expenditures. With regard to industry environmental protection capital expenditures, it differentiates the total 1978 expenditures of $363 million among the three environmental protection areas mentioned earlier. It then subdivides those for water quality protection along internal process loss control and external effluent management lines. This is only the second year in the past seven that environmental protection expenditures have represented less than 29 percent of the total capital expenditures, being 16 percent in 1978 in the primary industry section involving pulp and paper manufacture. The planned capital expenditures for 1979 are somewhat less than for 1978. There are strong indications that an upturn in environmental protection expenditures will start in 1980.