Technical Bulletin No. 0077: A Guide for the Determination of Pulp Mill Pollution

  Perhaps the greatest need in regard to evaluation of conditions resulting from the discharge of industrial effluents into surface waters is adequate analytical methods. Unfortunately, standard procedures sometimes fail to yield satisfactory results when applied to waters containing certain compounds discharged by industries. This is particularly true of pulp mill effluents, largely because of the presence of lignin complexes which interfere with some test procedures. Hence, modifications of techniques, special methods or the application of correction factors to values obtained must be resorted to if reasonable correct measurements are to be obtained. The attached Technical Bulletin contains comparisons and evaluations of some methods employed for the detection and quantitative measurement of pollution resulting from pulp mill discharge, together with recommendations as to the procedures best applied under various conditions. It is hoped that this bulletin will serve as a basis for future work toward better analytical techniques and that, from time to time, it will be amended and addended so that the best procedures can be put in the hands of pulp and paper mill technical  personnel.