What a SHOCKING Surprise - Pulp Mill Was a Boondoggle After All

In late September 2004, the Charleston Gazette reported:

"REMEMBER back in the 1990s, when Parsons & Whittemore planned a $1 billion paper pulp mill in Mason County, but dropped the project amid controversy over pollution? Well, it’s probably just as well, because the firm has gone bankrupt. The town of Nackawic, New Brunswick, Canada, is in shock. Bizarrely, the company said it was closing the community’s pulp mill temporarily for maintenance and hired 40 contractors for that task – then shut the plant permanently and threw 406 employees out of work. Astonished workers occupied the mill in protest. The following day, Parsons & Whittemore, based in New Jersey, filed bankruptcy for all its operations. A Canadian businessman told us the firm’s actions were ruthless and devastating."

Good thing indeed! This was the same project that West Virginia officials were willing to do anything to get, including offering economic "incentives" of more than $1 million per job created, advising P&W on ways to keep the unions out, and generally acting as P&W's bully boy in WV.

Thanks to all the OVEC members and volunteers who are still with us from the days of fighting off what would have been the continent’s largest, dioxin-spewing pulp mill.