The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is offering initial emergency loans to 20 local governments for emergency projects to rehabilitate drinking water and/or wastewater systems in response to damages caused by Hurricane Helene. 

Pactiv Evergreen has filed a request with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to make “major” modifications to the discharge permit for its wastewater treatment facility in Canton.  

While there are still many uncertainties surrounding the ultimate fate of Pactiv Evergreen’s now-shuttered mill site in Canton, the situation has come somewhat into focus with confirmation from Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers that a management consulting firm has submitted a letter of intent to purchase the property.

Festering frustration with nearly every aspect of Pactiv Evergreen’s actions taken in closing its Canton paper mill a year ago spilled over into a town meeting May 9, when board members took the opportunity to dump all over Pactiv for its latest putrid mess.

Amid ongoing restructuring, Pactiv Evergreen presented its first quarter earnings report on May 2, missing earnings targets and revealing flagging revenue at least partially attributable to the closing of its Canton paper mill last year. 

Haywood Waterways Association and the Haywood County Environmental Health Department are hosting a workshop about septic systems. 

Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill in Canton has been hit with its fifth-straight notice of an environmental violation following the failure of a quarterly discharge toxicity test. 

Although concerns about Canton’s post-mill wastewater treatment remain front and center, the town’s recovery from devastating flooding in 2021 continues to move forward with a project budget meant to shore up the town’s aging water infrastructure. 

History will whisper through the mountain mists that once upon a time, Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill in Canton stood as a symbol of industry and economic prosperity for generations. But behind its towering façade, the specter of mismanagement and malfeasance eventually led to a botched closing announcement, a health care coverage crisis and more than a thousand workers helplessly watching their good-paying jobs evaporate like morning dew in the midday summer sun.

If you want to know whether COVID-19 infections are rising or falling, look to the sewers. Wastewater monitoring (also known as wastewater surveillance or wastewater-based epidemiology) offers a novel way to monitor the health of a population as a whole.