Despite being closed for over eight months, the Pactiv Evergreen Paper Mill in Canton has continued to receive notices of violation from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality — notably, for the excess discharge of fecal coliform bacteria.
The mill has received three violations in the first week of February in which NCDEQ monitoring reports indicated the paper mill dumped coliform at 50% above the state limit, twice in October and once in November.
The notices of violation come months after the date of the dumping.
“DWR receives a monitoring report from PactivEvergreen, the current owner of the mill, up to 30 days after the end of each month. DWR can issue a notice of violation immediately upon receiving the monitoring report, although sometimes staff will seek more information first,” NCDEQ Division of Water Resources spokesperson Laura Oleniacz. wrote to the Citizen Times Feb. 7.
In the last five years, the company has received at least seven notices of violation for excess coliform discharges into the Pigeon River, with the site receiving 21 fecal coliform violations in the past 10 years, according to Oleniacz.