OREANDA-NEWS. Sergey Serebrennikov, Mayor of Bratsk, and a group of deputies of the Bratsk City Duma led by Larisa Pavlova, the City Duma Chairperson, visited the Bratsk Mill of OJSC Ilim Group.

The delegation visited the facilities built under the Big Bratsk investment project including the current board line and the old fiberline that was decommissioned after the start-up of the Big Bratsk facilities.

After the mill tour, Alexander Pozdnyakov, Director of the Bratsk Branch of OJSC Ilim Group, familiarized the delegation with the results of implementation of the Big Bratsk investment project with a focus on environmental aspects of the Company’s operations. In particular, he noted that since 2010 the Mill has managed to cut its total NCG (non-condensable gases) emissions by more than half.

Alexander Pozdnyakov has also informed the visitors of the Company's plans to mitigate its environmental footprint, which include installation of a sparger at the emergency NCG discharge line from the ImpBin on the Fiberline during the next preventive maintenance in February to completely eliminate the source of emission in this area. The actions also include building of a new CTO Plant and decommissioning of the old one, mothballing of sludge collector 2, odor-control treatment for sludge collector 3, NCG removal using the washers of the HW Line etc.

During the meeting, the representatives of Ilim Group announced the Company's plan to convert to ECF bleaching to ensure complete elimination of chlorine from the manufacturing process and reduce environmental impact.

Alexander Pozdnyakov has also announced that the Company will conduct the inventory of all emission sources at the Mill by the end of 2015. As Sergey Serebrennikov, Mayor of Bratsk, commented after the visit, "We've experienced a forest company as it is and learned about its complexity, automation level and great variety of technologies in use. Certainly, the upgrade of the Mill was well-timed, important and had to be completed in full compliance with the process cycle. Ilim Group is not the only polluter in the city, they are quite numerous. In order to understand the direction in which we are moving and do it in a consistent manner, in March 2015 we'll organize an ecology conference involving regulatory experts and researchers. We are all living in the same city and have a common interest of making it clean and comfortable for life".

"We are always open for a dialog with all stakeholders and do not hide any information concerning our environmental projects and further plans aimed to gradually reduce our environmental footprint", said Alexander Pozdnyakov, Director of the Bratsk Branch, OJSC Ilim Group.