Roseburg Forest Products and many other plywood mills across Oregon and the nation hope to receive an extension for installing controls on emissions of formaldehyde and other chemicals they release into the air each year.

RFP and other mills, which emit at least 10 tons of a single pollutant or 25 tons of combined chemicals each year, face a Monday deadline. The equipment to reduce emissions costs millions of dollars.

The emissions come from pressing veneer plywood and other wood products together by using heat and glue based in carcinogenic formaldehyde. The process also releases methanol, phenol, acrolein, acetaldehyde and other hazardous chemicals.

At least 12 of the more than 20 plywood and composite wood mills in Oregon have asked state regulators to extend the deadline. Four more have argued that they don't emit enough for the regulation to apply to them.

According to state regulators, only RFP mills in Douglas County have to comply with the regulation. The three mills are in Riddle and Dillard, where a plywood and particle board complex is located.

RFP's plywood mill in Coquille also has to comply.

Ellen Porter, manager of environmental affairs for RFP, said compliance will cost the company more than any other environmental regulation in the past.

"We're going to be looking at tens of millions of dollars," Porter said.

The company's Engineering Wood Products plant in Riddle, which manufactures I-joists and other types of laminated lumber, already has emission controls in place. They were part of the facility's permitting process when built in 2000.

In 1990, Congress passed a law regulating airborne toxins as an amendment to the Clean Air Act. Petroleum and other chemical manufacturers had to comply first. Plywood and other wood products manufacturers had to comply last. In June, a federal court struck down a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provision that let most plants avoid controls by demonstrating that their emissions posed low risk to surrounding populations.

The decision also set the Monday deadline, a year earlier than 220 U.S. mills had been planning on.

"It came as quite of a surprise," Ellen said of RFP having to comply with all of its facilities on short order.

Oregon state officials probably will grant all of the extension requests. But they say they'll keep them as short as possible. Companies receiving extensions will have to have pollution controls in by Oct. 1, 2008, or risk sanctions.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has the authority to grant extensions. A DEQ official said three hearings on extensions in Oregon are expected to take place in late October or November.

The early deadline comes as health concerns increase about formaldehyde "off-gassing" from wood products and carpet in homes. In April, the California Air Resources Board followed the lead of Japan and Europe and passed the strictest requirements in the U.S., limiting formaldehyde content in interior building materials.

Many of Oregon's mills make exterior grade softwood plywood, which typically uses a formaldehyde resin with a lower off-gas rate.



* An AP story contributed to this report. You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.