CHIP MILL PLANNED FOR PORT SITE

SCOTT CITY -- A wood chip mill moving to the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority may be good for the environment as well as the economy.

William Moore, Canal Wood Corp. director of operations, said the mill will use the parts of trees logging companies leave as waste. Loggers will cut off the top foot of trees and leave it to rot.

"Our hope is to get some of that material that is now being wasted and use it in our facility," Moore said.

Waste wood is not the only resource the mill will employ. Moore said timber can be gathered from road expansion projects, farmers wishing to clear property and private timberland.

Moore said Canal Wood will only contract with private suppliers and is not looking to buy trees from publicly owned lands. The company will only contract with loggers who have completed a special training course that emphasizes the responsible harvesting of trees.

"We encourage loggers to use best-management procedures," Moore said. "You leave the land in basically the same way you found it."

Loggers in the area are not used to collecting wood that can be used for pulp. "They're just used to moving the saw logs. So, recovering the pulp-wood type material is going to be different for them," he said.

Moore said Canal Wood is the largest supplier of wood in the Southeast. The company is planning to open its fourth mill nationally on 40 acres of land at the port authority.

The $10 million facility will employ about 15 people. Another 10 to 15 people will be hired in the region to purchase timber. Moore said ground has already been broken on the mill's construction, which is scheduled to be completed next July.

Moore said the company will purchase timber, contract with loggers and hire agents before the facility is completed. On-site workers will be hired primarily from the Scott City area.

Mike Gill, the mill manager, said the new employees will be trained at the company's mill in Arkansas, and the mill will run two shifts.

The mill will be able to stock as much as 20,000 tons of timber on site for future processing. Moore said the company will start production on a small level -- maybe 300,000 tons of wood chips. The mill will probably be ship about five barges of chips a month in the first year of production.

Dan Overbey, port director, said the port commission has been pursuing a chip mill since 1991 and has realized the benefits of having a mill in the area.

He said people are usually leery of wood-products companies because of the smell, but the chip mill smells like a lumber yard.

Moore said the wood at the chip mill is not treated with chemicals and the wood will be shipped out for pulping. The company will be chipping mostly hardwoods that will be used for high-quality papers.