This week marks an amazing milestone for Howe Sound Pulp and Paper (HSPP) - its 100th birthday. And while every decade in the mill's long history played an important role, likely the one most people associated with the company would nail as the most crucial would be the 1980s.
Harry Cargo was the project manager for the mill's massive renovation that marked the '80s. He came to the mill in 1980. One of the most important things that happened to make the modernization possible was the new partnership between Oji Paper from Japan and Canfor. An agreement was signed on April 1, 1988 and wholesale changes began in earnest.
One of the first acquisitions was a brand-new paper machine. This purchase enabled the mill to produce news grade for Japan's discerning consumers, and the rest of the supply was marketed by the company elsewhere.
Cargo said the changes involved putting in an all-new pulp line.
"The old line was very difficult to run and quite ancient. The new line was as environmentally capable as possible. That was a great success," he explained.
In addition to a number of small digesters, the company installed one large digester, which was much easier to run, according to Cargo. Next a new recovery boiler was installed, another big project, Cargo said.
"Then the company decided to put in another big boiler to create more electrical power for the mill. The boiler would provide power for the new generator for the electricity," Cargo added.
"The biggest problem we had was we were building a brand-new mill but we were running the old mill. The whole thing was very difficult. We did not understand the complications involved so the project ended up with a significant over-run of money," he remembered.
There were problems with hog supply to the second boiler. The hog, waster material from saw mills that couldn't be made into milled lumber (residual bark and such), came from the Fraser River, so it was never as dry as it should have been. The percentage of water meant the hog couldn't be burned economically.
Another huge problem at the time was the building boom that was going on in the province.
"It was hard to get the experienced people we needed," Cargo recalled.
The job had an intricacy that few builders could appreciate. And the job needed to be done in small increments to accommodate the day-to-day work going on in the working mill.
Cargo is proud of what the renovations accomplished.
"I was very glad for the project, and when it ended we were able to process three times as much product with only about 20 per cent more workforce. And the whole environmental aspect of the mill was so much better. When I came in 1980, there must have been a one-metre deep black liquor contamination on top of the sea. Now you don't see anything like that," he stated.
A quote from Don Stuart, mill manager at the time, in the publication Rough and Ready Times: The History of Port Mellon defined the finished mill: "We still have a few odd scraps around the mill that are not new - but there isn't a lot," he said.
Cargo, who retired from the mill almost 18 years ago, summed up the project as one of learning on the job.
"We didn't have the experience, nobody did, to bring in one and take out another," he said.
