Mile 255.0 - LBD Georgia Pacific Port Hudson Paper Mill
255 LBD Georgia Pacific Port Hudson Paper Mill
Maker of well known brands such as Angel Soft and Quilted Northern Toilet Paper and Brawny Paper Towels, the Georgia Pacific(GP) Paper Mill is located just south of Thompson Creek. Not shown on the Army Corps maps because there is no dock or landing, or any visible connection to the river. There is a nasty invisible connection though. Georgia Pacific draws tens of millions of gallons of water a day from the Southern Hills Aquifer, the drinking water source for the City of Baton Rouge. This vast amount of water is used in the paper making process and after gaining a lethal stew of chemicals, GP discharges the waste water into the river forming a disgusting black lagoon, LBD 255, where dead fish and even a dead gator have been found (as documented by the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper).
You can paddle into the black waters (although this is not advised, avoid skin contact and fumes) by staying left bank after Thompson Creek. The black lagoon is found in some stands of young willows just below the Port Hudson Tunica Hills. The river lovingly accepts this intrusion as equanimously as she does any tributary. You will not want to camp anywhere near this noisy stinky amalgamation. Unfortunately some of the best camping in the area is found on nearby Fancy Point. If the wind is blowing wrong way (from the East) the GP Port Hickey mill smells and sounds like it’s just over the banktop willows, when it’s actually still several miles to the east.
Don’t swim in or draw water downstream of this mill for any purpose, until at least Profit Island. In fact, this would be a good point to stop using river water for any of your daily routine such as washing dishes, boiling for cooking water, or for filtering, or etc. Even bathing. I know this will be difficult pill to swallow. But buck up paddlers, you are nearing Chemical Corridor, AKA Cancer Alley, below Baton Rouge. This will be especially difficult to adopt in the summer months when the best and easiest way to cool down is with river water. But you might as well start practicing something you’re going to most certainly have to adopt below Baton Rouge where raw city sewage is just one of many harmful intrusions on your previously clean source for camp water.
As a side note, the Southern Tunica Hills aquifer that GP draws from is declining so rapidly that it is sucking salt water into the same aquifer that Baton Rouge uses for its drinking water, as noted, approx 90 million gallons per day. In an effort to slow the intrusion, Baton Rouge has dug deep wells south of town to try and slow the intrusion, and reverse the process. So we have three sets of wells all sucking the earth dry at this last of the Tunica Hills, a sorrowful end note in their otherwise spectacular symphony following the Big River down from Fort Adams, Mississippi.
As a side note, the Southern Hills Aquifer, which GP and ExxonMobil (LBD 232.2) draw from, is being consumed at such a rapid rate that it is pulling salt water in from the south and threatening the drinking water supply for the city of Baton Rouge. In an effort to slow the intrusion, Baton Rouge Water Co. has dug deep scavenger wells in an effort to counteract the pressure created by the demands of the city and industry on the aquifer and combat the salt water intrusion. Concerned citizens and the city of Baton Rouge are currently working to find a solution to this highly unsustainable use of their precious groundwater. Perhaps part of the solution could be provided by the Mighty Mississippi. If the Georgia Pacific PaperMill and ExxonMobil would switch to utilizing river water for its processes instead of aquifer water, the demand on the aquifer would be cut in half. This would dramatically extend the life of the pristine drinking water source for the people of Baton Rouge and the surrounding area. The river provides in mysterious ways! (LMRK)