MARKET FACTORS CLOSE ONE OF TWO CHIP MILLS

Another environmental issue -- this one closer to home -- involves chip mills in Missouri.

Worries that proliferation of such operations would denude the forests of southern Missouri appear to have lost some punch with the closing of one of the state's two mills.

Market factors, it seems, have more impact that anything else when it comes to chip mills.

Canal Wood Industries has halted operations at its mill at the Southeast Missouri Port Authority near Scott City. Willamette Industries Inc.'s mill near Mill Spring, Mo., continues to operate.

In the end, plain old supply and demand are determining the future of chip mills, not environmental groups or state agencies or special task forces appointed by the governor.