Friends of Perdido Bay

08/07/2025

Tidings The Newsletter of the Friends of Perdido Bay

August 2025 Volume 37 Number 4 Jackie Lane-editor
www.friendsofperdidobay.com

Thank you for your support
Friends of Perdido Bay operates on your generosity. I am sure there are a few people who wish we would go away, including some in government agencies. But we are here to stay until our bay is cleaned up. Some would say “Why Bother. It looks OK.” But looks are deceiving. Do you see people out fishing? Or swimming? Or shrimp boats going up and down the bay for shrimp. NO. The bay’s productivity has been killed. And Friends of Perdido Bay’s job is to bring it back. We know it can happen, and we will work on it. When the International Paper Mill in Cantonment Florida blew up in 2017, the bay immediately returned to life. I was amazed at how fast life returned and how fast it disappeared once the mill started back up. It is no doubt that the mill is the cause of most of the lost productivity in the bay. We have tried to understand why over the years. I will explain some of what we have found.

A Historical Overview of Perceived Problems
Perhaps the first problem we saw was low dissolved oxygen in the bottom waters. The mill in Cantonment always denied that they were causing or contributing to this problem. But it was hard for citizens to believe that dumping 5,000 pounds daily of total suspended solids which was mostly organic didn’t contribute to the low oxygen. The stuff didn’t just evaporate. It decayed and used up oxygen.
Then, the consultant hired by the paper mill said it was plant nutrients which were causing algae blooms. These algae died, sank to the bottom, and caused the goo and low dissolved oxygen. That was possible but it didn’t explain the disappearance of life in shallow areas. In those years (1995-2004), we did see lots of algae at our beaches. It was easy to believe nutrients were a problem. The lack of life was attributed to blooms of toxic algae caused by the plant nutrients. We didn’t see any massive fish kills, but who knows?
So the paper mill went to disposing of its effluent in a “wetland”. This wetland was supposed to remove the nutrients and life was supposed to return. But alas, life in Perdido Bay just didn’t come back. Matter of fact, it got worse. Why?

The Real Problems in Perdido Bay
The real problems in Perdido have evolved over time. As Mike Papantonio said in TV ads in 1999, the paper mill effluent is toxic. The people on Escambia Bay didn’t want that stuff in their bay. Toxic? Maybe not for all forms of life, but certainly to some. Oyster larvae which live in the water for several weeks must be affected by paper mill effluent. If they weren’t, we would have oysters in the Upper part of Perdido Bay. And to corroborate this story, old timers remember oysters living here before the papermill started. The millions of clams we used to have on the bottom of Perdido Bay years ago, are gone. My children must remember these clams well. They used to get into trouble throwing clams at each other. These missiles of destruction are gone. This indicates that the mill effluent is probably getting more toxic. From what?
In 1995, the mill converted to a new form of bleaching – chlorine dioxide. At the time, the old owners of the mill, Champion International, told us that this new bleaching agent was going to make a huge difference. The old bleaching agent, chlorine, produced dioxin and other chlorinated chemicals. It was dangerous. But when we checked for dioxin in Perdido Bay sediments in 1999, we didn’t find any. When we checked again in 2004, the dioxin values were high. The conversion to chlorine dioxide bleaching in 1995 didn’t really prevent dioxin formation. What we did find was – that the known disinfectant, chlorine dioxide, was present in Elevenmile Creek at a pretty high concentration. The EPA had told us that chlorine dioxide would break down rapidly. It didn’t. Our studies in Elevenmile Creek showed that chlorine dioxide was present at the same concentration from the beginning of the creek (the papermill’s discharge point) to the end of the creek
as it entered Perdido Bay. There was no breakdown of this chemical. Chlorine dioxide was probably disinfecting Perdido Bay for a certain distance from the mouth of the creek.
In addition to finding a disinfecting chemical, our testing in Elevenmile Creek also showed chlorate. Chlorate is a well-known herbicide. The presence of chlorate would explain the disappearance of little algae which I was trying to grow on glass plates in Upper Perdido Bay. This was part of my research which I had been doing since the early 1980’s at my beach in Upper Perdido Bay. We don’t live too far from the mouth of Elevenmile Creek. Another alarming sign was the red fronds on the sea grasses especially near the surface. It was obvious something was wrong. In the mid-2000’s, the drift algae disappeared, but we still had some clams at our beaches.
Things really declined in 2017 just after the paper mill started back up after their explosion. It was several months before we found out from the Florida environmental agency what IP had done. In 2017, IP got a new air permit. Remember, they are still operating on a water permit which expired in 2017. These water discharge permits had been administratively continued since 1994. They have never met the water quality standards. In the new 2017 air permits, we discovered that IP was using wet alkaline scrubbers to remove certain pollutants from their air emissions. These fluids and the materials removed from the smokestacks were flowing into their treatment ponds and then into Perdido Bay. At the same time, we noticed that the bay was becoming increasingly alkaline. In pH measurements, I noticed the bay waters off my beach were rising from pH 7.8 to measurements over 8. At the same time, swimming in the bay was becoming more and more uncomfortable. You would get out and your skin would feel hot, even after a shower. IP was discharging their effluent into a wetland and they were reporting a wastewater which had a pH of about 7 S.U. This was a legal limit.
The pH continued to rise in the bay. I sent several letters to Governor DeSantis about the problem. Never heard a word back. In 2020, I went up and measured the pH in Elevenmile Creek, just after it flowed off IP’s property at Kingsfield Road. One day, I found a pH of 8.4. This number is very high and alkaline since the pH of the local waters is on the acidic side. In 2023, Friends of Perdido Bay decided to test to see if Elevenmile Creek water was toxic. In 2023, we found that Elevenmile Creek water was toxic to mussel larvae. Upper Perdido Bay water was not. This was a little puzzling since the paper mill was not supposed to discharge anything but stormwater into the creek, and it had not been raining. The USGS has a flow gage on Elevenmile Creek and the online records of this gage, showed that there were large periodic influxes of water into the creek.
In addition to the pH going up, we saw from data that our consultants were taking and from the data which the county was taking that the dissolved oxygen was also going up. There was nearly a direct correlation between increasing pH and increasing percent saturation of dissolved oxygen. It was amazing. We began to check the literature for what could be happening. We found many research papers, including one from a professor from the civil engineering department at South Alabama, which showed that chlorine dioxide broke down into various chemicals and gave off oxygen, especially under alkaline conditions. This was amazing! It was the perfect chemical for the paper industry, especially since the industry discharged enormous amounts of oxygen-consuming materials.
What could be wrong with oxygen? This was the question from an audience member at a recent talk? Well, nothing. It is good, but the other chemical released is chlorate – an herbicide. And this is exactly what appears to be the case. We no longer see algae blooms or grass beds or even a healthy assemblage of phytoplankton. The primary productivity of the bay has been compromised. The type of plankton which blooms in the bay is not good food for the schools of fish which we previously saw, the menhaden and the alewives. To prove that this is true, Friends of Perdido Bay has contracted with a company to study the types of phytoplankton blooming in the bay. We will let you know what we find. But for sure. There is an herbicidal impact in the bay.

Air Emmissions going into the Water
On our request, the Florida DEP kindly provided a list of all the air emissions which are discharging alkaline fluids to the wastewater treatment plant. There were ten sources of air pollutants which use wet alkaline scrubbers at the mill. It is a dizzying area of various places in the mill and the processes which use wet scrubbers. I will put this list on our website so that you can inspect all the places. Pollutants such as particulate matter, pH, sulfur dioxide, and total recoverable sulfur are captured on the smokestacks and put into the wastewater treatment system. Some of the natural combustion products such as arsenic and barium are also released. Arsenic is common if coal is being used as fuel in their power boilers.
As I looked at the mill’s discharge monitoring reports I realized that this transfer of materials from the air to the water has probably been going on a long time. In the mill’s monthly report, IP reports on the two different streams coming from the bleach plant – an alkaline stream and an acid stream. Three chemicals are found in both alkaline and acid streams – chloroform, chlorophenols, and dioxin. Yes, these are not chemicals you would want in the air or in the water. And yes, the bleach plant is still operating.

Current Numbers
On October 18, 2023, the IP mill in Cantonment announced that they were shutting down one of their two pulping lines. The bleach plant remains operational. The mill sends monthly operating reports to the Florida DEP. I do not know what their production is currently. With one pulping line shut down, maybe one-half of their past production which was 23,000 tons per day of wood pulp. For the month of June 2025, the average water flow from the mill was 20 Million gallons per day (MGD). IP is also reporting a flow from their stormwater discharge point of 22 (MGD). I don’t know why this number is so high. Maybe this flow includes the discharge of water which IP gets from ECUA. Remember, IP agreed to take 7 MGD of treated wastewater from ECUA’s wastewater treatment plant over on Escambia Bay. I wonder if IP is actually using this wastewater in their treatment or just disposing of it? This may be important.
The levels of Biological Oxygen Demand coming from the mill have dropped although the permit limits are the same. The levels of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) has also dropped to an average of 3,656 pounds per day (Permit Limit is 8,000 pounds per day).

Friends of Perdido Bay Testing Results
Our weekly testing shows occasionally high bacteria counts but no large blooms of algae. Occasionally very alkaline pH and Total Suspended Solids is high; i.e., the bay is turbid.

This website describes the activities of Friends of Perdido Bay and its attempts to fight the pollution from International Paper.

06/15/2025

Hello to our new members and thank you to our old (existing) members
Our drive to get new members was successful. We hope all new members enjoy our newsletters and help us with our fight to get our bay cleaned up. It still looks pretty dead even though every now and then someone will catch a fish, but not many. It certainly isn’t like it used to be. And please, all members who remember how plentiful Perdido Bay used to be, do not forget those memories. I think that is the plan. If our oceans and bays stay dead long enough, any memory of how our waters should be full of life will be forgotten.
And thank you to our many existing members (not old) for your faithful commitment to Friends of Perdido Bay and to our bay. If the plan was to wait for us to disappear, it has failed.

A Toxic Legacy
A year ago, Upper Perdido Bay got its first Florida Boat Ramp. There is a boat ramp over in Lillian Alabama but boat ramps on the Florida side of Perdido Bay were scarce. There used to be a boat ramp over at Hurst Hammock but that closed many years ago. People who wanted to go bass fishing up the Perdido River had to use the boat ramp at the 98 bridge which was meant for only small trucks and boats. The new boat ramp access at 10808 Lillian Highway is beautiful. It sits on 40 acres and has 62 car trailer spaces, 22 spaces for just cars and nice restrooms and picnic areas. There are two camp sites to support the Perdido River Kayaking trail and lots of big beautiful pine trees. The boat ramp had been planned for a long time.
In 2013, the Escambia County Commission bought the 40-acre site which had been a failed development. They spent over $1 Million of local sales tax option money on the property. That property was just down the beach from my property and was a beautiful (but low) piece. I used to walk down there a lot. The folks on Herron Bayou were a little bit worried about boat wakes and erosion of their properties from increased boat traffic, but the county imposed a no wake zone to stem the criticism. The development of the boat ramp took a long time. I am not sure why. But in 2017, a rather sinister piece of information emerged from the studies for the boat ramp. This information was never reported in the media, and I am sure our County Commissioner at the time, Jeff Bergosh, was certainly not going to tell anyone. But one of our members who sits on the County Marine Commission alerted me to this information and I put a “freedom of information request “ into Escambia County.
Escambia County had to get permits for the site and do soil testing. The County also had to dredge a channel out into Perdido Bay because the bay was very shallow just off Herron Bayou. The soil testing sites were both in Herron and just off Herron Bayou in Perdido Bay. The results of the soils test must have alarmed Escambia officials. The date of the soils test was October 17, 2017. When I saw the results the county had provided to me in 2023, I was alarmed but not surprised. Friends of Perdido Bay had been testing the sludges (soils) in Perdido Bay for years and finding similar results. Matter of fact, we had been presenting our data to the commissioners and declaring that Perdido Bay was a Superfund site. But the commissioners eyes seemed to glaze over and ignore the problem. I used to talk with Commissioner Bergosh and he told me International Paper would just leave for Mexico. I guessed he thought it was better that they stayed here and polluted our bay. It was jobs.
The results of the County’s soils testing showed that at all but one or two of the fourteen sites which the county tested, the concentrations of arsenic, chromium, selenium, silver and mercury exceeded the direct exposure residential limits and a few sites exceeded the direct exposure commercial limits (these are set higher). They did not test for dioxin. One site had high amounts of benzo-pyrene. The extremely high levels of heavy metals must have given the project some bad marks and maybe the commissioners were having second thoughts about developing a boat ramp.
The engineers who were working on the project must have suggested testing to find out if the soils would release these heavy metals. So they did a test where they put the soils in water and shook them up. Then they let the soils settle and test the water to see if they could find any presence of heavy metals in the water. Fortunately for the project, the heavy metals remained with the soils and did not leach into the water. The DEP must have given the project a green light after the county was able to demonstrate the heavy metals would not pose a health risk to the water. However just where the County put these contaminated, dredges soils is a big question. I had asked the county to provide this information, but they did not. I have since heard that the county may have collected the soils while dredging, but them in bags and buried the toxic soils at the site. There is a big open area just west of the parking lot. We hope they are not leaking back into the bay.
Just where these toxic sediments came from is clear. As Dr. Livingston, the paper mill consultant, said back in the 1990’s, there is only one major discharger in our bay, the papermill. The papermill may not be responsible for all the heavy metals, but it is responsible for most of them. After all, the environmental agencies have allowed International Paper to discharge up to 10,000 pounds a day (dry weight) of TSS into our bay or into the wetland surrounding the bay and then our bay, for years. This level of discharge is legal and permitted by the Clean Water Act so IP can’t be easily sued for the damages these TSS cause. The level of TSS allowed is based on production at the mill. This is one of the dirty little secrets about the Clean Water Act. It allows permits to be issued which can cause harm. I am sure in the recent cuts to EPA’s budget, the issuance of “permits to pollute” was not cut.
You might ask what is TSS and what is in TSS. TSS stands for Total Suspended Solids. TSS is measured by filtering a liter of water, drying the stuff on the filter and weighing the filter and the stuff. It is an easy measurement. You multiply the dry weight of the “stuff” by the volume of water released to find total amount. What is TSS composed of? We have asked the papermill people that question many times. Their answer – “Not sure”. Apparently the environmental agencies have not asked that question or are afraid to find the answer to that question. But we can assume that TSS has a lot of organic material in it as well as some heavy metals. Friends of Perdido Bay deployed sediment traps in the early 2000 and measured dioxin and heavy metals in the collected sediments.
The paper industry has always pretended that these TSS evaporate (all 10,000 pounds a day). In the early 1990’s, one of the papermill consultants did modeling for oxygen in Perdido Bay. The paper industry always pretended that this TSS did not contribute to the low dissolved oxygen for which Perdido Bay was famous. The paper mill consultant ignored the TSS settling out in the bay. No problem. But it is a problem and a severe problem especially since these TSS contain dioxin and heavy metals. Friends of Perdido Bay has measured this dioxin time and time again.
The class action lawsuit which was filed in 2000 and dismissed with prejudice in 2006, was all about relieving the paper mill from damages caused by their TSS and the toxic material which were in the TSS. “G. There is no claim for contamination by Defendant on any of the shoreline properties above the mean high water line owned by any putative class member. H. There is no claim for damages arising out of any claimed deposits or contamination on any of the shoreline properties above the mean high water line ovmed by any putative class member. “ This statement in Parentheses came from the Stipulation which was filed in 2006 by attorneys for both sides. The problem for the papermill is that hurricanes stir up the sediments on the bottom of Perdido Bay and wash this sediment onto our properties . Yuk! This is what happened in Hurricane Ivan and Sally. Friends of Perdidio Bay clearly documented these contaminated sediments on property owners’ property after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. After Hurricane Ivan we went around and collected Perdido Bay muck from at least 6 or 7 properties. This muck was very contaminated with dioxin and arsenic (See our website) which had to have come from the only industrial discharger on Perdido Bay. And by the way, IP is permitted to discharge dioxin. These attorneys were obviously corrupt and have contributed to the damages cause by the papermill. One of those attorneys was Robert Kennedy, Jr. who is currently our Secretary of Health.

04/05/2025

Friends of Perdido Bay
38 S. Blue Angel Parkway
PMB 350
Pensacola, FL 32506
850-377-4264

Tidings The Newsletter of the Friends of Perdido Bay

April 2025 Volume 38 Number 2 Jackie Lane-editor
www.friendsofperdidobay.com

Thank you for your support
Your support has made us independent of government funding. We are a self-supporting group. Any budget cuts or DODGE eliminations cannot affect our operations. We are an independent group, thanks to you. I am sure there are many people who would love to eliminate us and hope we will go away. But we have persisted because our bay is still being polluted mainly by the papermill. It was so obvious in 2017 when the papermill blew up and stopped discharging into our bay for three weeks. In a very short time (3 days) our bay was clear and full of life, including fishermen. Today, it is dead again. In this newsletter. I will try and explain why. The bay is or was obviously being manipulated with chemicals. Part of the story is given below.
Again – THANK YOU.

The Birds Tell Us A Lot
When you see the pelicans diving like crazy, you know there are fish. This usually means that the menhaden or other migratory fish are coming into the bay. But the pelicans are rarely here. There used to be several pelican nesting areas around the bay - one on the islands in the mouth of the Perdido River, another up Heron Bayou. I don’t see the pelican nesting areas anymore.
Another fish-eating bird, the osprey was always noticeable in the Spring when mating occurred. They would circle around in the sky making a high-pitched whistle trying to attract a mate. This Spring, I heard no whistles and saw no ospreys circling around overhead. It takes fish to feed ospreys. No fish, no ospreys.
Another bird which has left us is the great blue heron. I had one which was almost like a pet watch dog. It would sit on one of my cement groins and catch minnows. In the evening, if someone came along, it would fly off and make a loud honking sound. I always knew when someone was near the wall. No watchdog heron anymore, because there are no fish to catch. I also sit and look for minnows or baby fish. There are none. WHY?
After much thought and deliberation, I think that the algae which the fish feed on, is not there. For years, according to the scientists which studied the bay, the bay was over nutrified with too many nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. And we saw the results of too many nutrients. In the late 1990’s, huge amounts of algae bloomed at our beaches. It covered our crab traps and was a nuisance. Dr. Livingston, the papermill consultant, blamed much of the over nutrification on the papermill. Limits for nutrients were put in IP’s permit (the 2012), and International Paper went to an overland discharge which removed more nutrients. Did these measures work?
We are supposed to think so. But after, IP blew up in 2017 and was not discharging to Perdido Bay for several weeks, plankton blooms began to occur. Perdido Bay was turning green and exceeding the chlorophyll a limit which had been established in 2012 when specific nutrients limits were put on every bay in Florida. The specific chlorophyll a limit for Perdido Bay was higher than most bays in Florida but not high enough to allow the papermill to discharge without causing algae blooms.. The point is – the new bleaching agent which the paper mill had switched to in 1995, chlorine dioxide, produced a biproduct, chlorate, which was herbicidal. Friends of Perdido Bay sampling of Elevenmile Creek in 1995 clearly shows chlorate present in Elevenmile Creek water (See our website for the numbers). So I suspect that the paper mill was hoping that this chlorate would be sufficient to inhibit any excessive blooms of algae in Perdido Bay.
Friends of Perdido Bay has been actively monitoring the chlorophyll a values in Upper Perdido Bay and sending our values to the Florida DEP. There have been exceedance of the chlorophyll a limit in Upper Perdido Bay which is causing the paper mill a little heartburn. With the exceedances of chlorophyll a values, Upper Perdido Bay has been deemed “impaired” for nutrients and a TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) is being done to establish the correct nutrient level. Normally Florida DEP would have a consultant do a TMDL for Upper Perdido Bay. But in this case, the Pulp and Paper Industry has taken control of establishing nutrient limits for Upper Perdido Bay. This is highly unusual. But since the Florida regulators can’t say “NO” to the pulp and paper industry, it is the Pulp and Paper Industry which is now calling the shots.
To make matters worse for the Pulp and Paper Industry, International Paper is supposedly no longer bleaching their pulp, according to the Florida DEP. This would mean “no chlorate” to control algae blooms. So Pulp and Paper is using some other way of controlling algae blooms! A w**d killer? Who knows. But what I do know is that the algae in Upper Perdido Bay is suppressed. I am trying to run tests now to show that the algae is suppressed.
You may ask, why did the EPA allow Champion and then IP to use chlorine dioxide bleaching when they knew that it produced a bi-product, chlorate, which was herbicidal. As EPA said in their justification for allowing chlorine dioxide, it sharply reduced the production of chlorinated chemicals, like dioxin. But chlorine dioxide had other advantages for the pulp and paper industry; it could produce, under the proper conditions, oxygen. Having a chemical which could put oxygen in the water, was a dream chemical for the paper industry. For years, the sludges and oxygen consuming chemicals which the pulp and paper industry released into the environment, harmed our environment. For years before 2017, all honest studies showed the very low levels of dissolved oxygen which were present in the deeper water of Perdido Bay, especially in the summer. In 2018, Friends of Perdido Bay commissioned a study which showed low dissolved oxygen in deeper waters. The 5,000 to 10,000 pounds a day of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) which the paper mill released daily only made the low dissolved oxygen situation worse.
The paper industry and their consultants just tried to ignore and downplay the harmful effect of these solids. In the early 1990’s, Champion did modeling studies which didn’t even take into account these solids. The Florida regulators in Tallahassee agreed with the Livingston study when he said that the low dissolved oxygen was coming from the Gulf of Mexico (now called Gulf of America). The Pulp and Paper Industry did not want any more stringent limits on the amount of Total Suspended Solids which they were
permitted to release into the environment. The 5,000 to 10,000 pounds (dry weight) were the allowable legal limits which were given in IP’s permit.
To have a chemical like chlorine dioxide, which produced oxygen was a dream for the pulp and paper industry. However, there was a drawback. It took very alkaline water for this chemical reaction to realize its full potential. In 2017, International Paper got new air permits for their 30 + places where they release chemicals into the air. Several of these air permits allowed IP to use “wet alkaline air scrubbers”, especially on their power boilers. This alkaline discharge goes into their effluent and is discharged with the effluent. I don’t know if all the effluent from their “wet alkaline scrubbers” goes to the Rainwater wetland. I think some of the very alkaline water goes directly down Elevenmile Creek. We have measured alkaline water in Elevenmile Creek. But it is enough alkalinity to get Perdido Bay water to increase its alkalinity and also dissolved oxygen. Voila! In the study which Friends of Perdido Bay commissioned in 2021, the deeper water in Perdido Bay had lots of dissolved oxygen. In some cases, it was super saturated. The oxygen deficit which had existed in Perdido Bay before had magically disappeared. Chlorine dioxide was a wonderful chemical. Is the EPA complicit in this deception? You bet!

Interview About Your Pollution Experience.
The University of Florida has an oral history project where they record live interviews with people about certain local issues. They are looking for people to interview about local pollution issues in Pensacola. They are inviting people to share their pollution stories. They will be in Pensacola on Saturday April 12, 2025 from 10 to 2. If you are interested in sharing your story go to: [email protected] to set up an interview.

Get a New Member and Spread the Word
There is an additional membership form in this newsletter for you to give to a neighbor or friend so that they can become members of Friends of Perdido Bay. By getting new members we can spread the news about our sad plight and efforts to restore a once beautiful bay to life. Memberships are only $30.00 per year. The more people, the better.

Membership and Renewals
Tidings is published six times a year by Friends of Perdido Bay and is mailed to members. To keep up with the latest news of happenings on Perdido Bay, become a member or renew your membership. For present members, your date for renewal is printed on your mailing label.
Membership is $30.00 per year per voting member. To join or renew, fill out the coupon to the right and mail with your check to the address on the front.
Friends is a not-for-profit corporation, and all contributions are tax-deductible. Funds received are all used for projects to improve Perdido Bay. No money is paid to the Board of Directors, all of whom volunteer their time and effort.

This website describes the activities of Friends of Perdido Bay and its attempts to fight the pollution from International Paper.