Federal inspectors’ gas alarms went off at Ashdown paper mill. Seven years later, Domtar agreed to pay $1.5 million.
A newly filed complaint says the mill missed required inspections 17 times, and still has not shown regulators that two of its power boilers meet mercury and acid limits set a decade ago.
Two air pollution inspectors were standing next to a piece of equipment at Domtar’s Ashdown paper mill in the spring of 2019 when the hydrogen sulfide monitors clipped to their clothing began to alarm.
That moment, described in a civil complaint filed Friday in federal court, sits at the center of a case that would have Domtar pay a $1.5 million penalty and spend at least $2.6 million fixing its operations.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the complaint and a proposed consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge John T. Shepherd in the court’s Texarkana division.
Domtar A.W. LLC operates the kraft pulp mill at 285 Highway 71 South in Ashdown, about 25 miles northeast of Texarkana. The mill employs roughly 580 people and is one of the largest fluff pulp plants in the world, according to the company.
The proposed settlement is not final. It faces a 30-day public comment period, and Shepherd must approve it before it takes effect. Domtar does not admit any issue of fact or law.
What happened in the plant
An EPA inspector arrived at the mill on Monday, April 29, 2019. EPA and DEQ inspectors then worked the site together from April 30 through May 2.
On the first day of the joint inspection, the team toured pulp line No. 1B and stopped at a brown stock washer the mill knows by its commercial name, the Chemi-Washer. The equipment washes spent cooking chemicals out of freshly digested wood pulp.
The complaint says there were visible emissions coming off the washer while the team stood there. Personal hydrogen sulfide monitors worn by Dr. Sarah Frey of EPA and Alex Mathis of DEQ both sounded, with maximum readings of seven parts per million and nine parts per million.
Federal rules for kraft pulp mills cap total reduced sulfur discharged from a brown stock washer system at five parts per million. Total reduced sulfur is the combined measure of hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, the compounds behind the sour, rotten egg odor associated with paper mills.
Prosecutors allege the concentration coming off the Chemi-Washer that day exceeded the limit, and that the washer continues to discharge above it. They qualified the claim as subject to further investigation or discovery.
Seventeen missed inspections
The second claim is about paperwork that was supposed to catch problems like the one the inspectors walked into.
Federal rules require the mill to visually inspect its enclosures, closed vent systems and condensate collection systems at least once every 30 days. The complaint includes a table of 17 occasions between May 2016 and January 2019 when Domtar went longer than that.
The gaps ran from one day past due to 23 days past due, and add up to 87 days beyond the deadline. The longest single stretch was 53 days between inspections in the fall of 2018.
The Justice Department said in announcing the settlement that in one instance the mill failed to detect a leaking valve releasing uncontrolled and illegal pollutants during a 53-day gap. That characterization appears in the department’s press release rather than in the complaint itself, which alleges only the failure to inspect on time.
The complaint also notes that at the time of the 2019 inspection, Domtar had no approved alternative schedule that would have let it inspect less often than every 30 days.
The boilers, and a deadline missed by a decade
The third claim is the one with the longest reach.
Under federal standards for industrial boilers at major sources of hazardous air pollutants, Domtar had to demonstrate compliance by Jan. 31, 2016. That means running performance tests, analyzing its fuel, establishing operating limits, and filing a document called a Notification of Compliance Status.
Domtar submitted a package under that title on March 24, 2016. The complaint says it was incomplete. It did not establish maximum fuel input levels for mercury or chlorine, did not include the required fuel analysis, and did not include the example calculations that would have set those limits.
The company did not provide the equations for Power Boilers No. 2 and No. 3, or the initial fuel analysis, until May 26, 2021, more than five years after the deadline.
As of the date the complaint was filed, prosecutors say Domtar still has not submitted a complete Notification of Compliance Status. The consequence, according to the filing, is that the mill has never demonstrated that Power Boilers No. 2 and No. 3 comply with their limits for mercury and hydrochloric acid.
Power Boiler No. 2 was installed in 1975. Power Boiler No. 3 was converted to a power boiler in 1990. Both burn a mix that includes biomass, bark, wood chips, gas and tire derived fuel.
Because the monitoring gaps and the missing boiler data went unresolved, regulators say the full volume of hazardous air pollutants released from the mill is unknown. The complaint identifies the pollutants the mill emits or can emit as volatile organic compounds, methanol, and chlorinated compounds including chlorine dioxide and hydrochloric acid.
What $1.5 million represents
The complaint spells out what Domtar could have faced. Federal law allows civil penalties of up to $124,426 per day for each violation occurring after Nov. 2, 2015, for penalties assessed on or after Jan. 8, 2025. Arkansas law allows up to $10,000 per day per violation going back to January 2009.
The negotiated penalty is $1.5 million, split evenly. Domtar would pay $750,000 to the United States and $750,000 by check to DEQ. Ten percent of the state’s share reimburses DEQ for administrative costs. The remaining $675,000 goes into the Environmental Settlement Trust Fund and may be used for division operating costs.
Payment is due within 30 days of the decree taking effect. Domtar cannot deduct it from federal, state or local income taxes.
What Domtar has to fix
The consent decree sets out a detailed schedule.
The washer. Domtar must seal the gaskets, windows, hatches and enclosures on the brown stock washer and completely weld the unit. To reach compliance it must install a Kadant wire dryer system and make manufacturer-recommended improvements to cut fugitive emissions and route reduced sulfur compounds back into the process. If that does not work, the company must pick one of two fallbacks: a gas vapor collection system at the washer’s feed roll, or full vapor collection across the washer, with the gases routed to an incinerator or equivalent control device. Either fallback requires an EPA-approved schedule and must be built within 18 months of permit approval.
Separately, Domtar applied before the decree was lodged for an exemption from the federal reduced sulfur standard at the washer, covering emissions above the levels the decree requires it to control.
Leak detection. An independent third-party reviewer with pulp and paper experience, approved by EPA, must review the mill’s leak detection and repair plan. Domtar then has to revise it, verify component listings and schematics, add quality control measures, and build annual training for every employee with leak detection duties. Required monitoring must be performed by a contractor rather than mill staff for the life of the decree, and leak and negative pressure testing moves to twice a year.
The decree sets a leak threshold of 500 parts per million by volume above background. Domtar then has five days to attempt a repair and 15 days to finish it. Delays are allowed only when the work cannot be done without a multi-day shutdown, or when an immediate fix would release more pollution than waiting.
Boilers. Domtar must run performance tests on Power Boilers No. 2 and No. 3, complete updated fuel analyses, establish operating limits, and finally file a complete Notification of Compliance Status.
Two mitigation projects
Domtar also agreed to two projects meant to offset environmental harm. Neither counts against the penalty.
The first covers capping valves on all 10 batch digesters at the mill. Domtar must inspect, service or replace them, run them on a rebuild-or-replace cycle every two years, and apply to fold that program into its Title V air permit.
The second involves the mill’s screw presses, which dewater sludge from the wastewater treatment system. Domtar must install two new screws, keep three presses operable, track output daily, calculate efficiency quarterly, and hire a third party to assess the wastewater treatment system for further improvements.
Much of the work was already due
Domtar’s Ashdown general manager, Tracy Altenbaumer, signed the consent decree Feb. 19. A DEQ attorney signed the next day. EPA Region 6 and the Justice Department signed July 22, and the filing came July 24.
Many deadlines written into the document have already passed. The capping valve work was due by the end of 2024. The third-party reviewer was to be hired by July 31, 2025. Boiler performance testing was due Oct. 31, 2025. The washer welding, the revised leak detection plan and the wire dryer installation were all due by the end of 2025, with any alternative compliance schedule due March 31.
The decree handles this directly. Once a judge signs it, the stipulated penalty provisions become retroactively enforceable for compliance and mitigation violations that happened before the effective date, though those penalties cannot be collected unless the court enters the decree.
Missing future deadlines carries set prices. Failing to use a contractor for inspections costs $5,000 a month. Late repairs run $250 per component per day. Operating the boilers outside their limits costs $125 per day per boiler if Domtar catches it, and $1,500 per day per boiler if a government investigation does. Other failures escalate from $900 a day to $3,600 a day past 30 days.
What happens next
The settlement resolves only the claims described in the complaint through the date it was lodged. It is not a permit and not a shield against future enforcement. The United States and DEQ reserved the right to act on any condition posing an imminent and substantial danger to public health or the environment.
Domtar must file compliance reports every July 31 and Jan. 31, and notify regulators within 24 hours of any violation that could pose an immediate threat to public health.
The company can ask to end the decree after completing the compliance work and then maintaining satisfactory compliance for two years.
The complaint and proposed consent decree are posted at justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees, where the public may comment during the 30-day window.
Timeline
- Jan. 31, 2016: Federal deadline for Domtar to demonstrate boiler compliance
- March 24, 2016: Domtar files a compliance notification regulators call incomplete
- May 2016 to January 2019: 17 required inspections come in late, 87 days past deadline in total
- April 29 to May 2, 2019: EPA and DEQ inspect the mill
- April 30, 2019: Inspectors’ hydrogen sulfide monitors alarm at the Chemi-Washer
- May 26, 2021: Domtar provides some of the missing boiler data
- Feb. 19, 2026: Domtar signs the consent decree
- July 24, 2026: Complaint and proposed settlement filed in federal court
Reporting based on the complaint and proposed consent decree in United States and Arkansas DEQ v. Domtar A.W. LLC, Case No. 4:26-cv-04059-JTS, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, and on the Justice Department’s announcement of the settlement.