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Remarks
from Joe Wolfsberger, Vice President Environmental Health & Safety
for Baxter's Medication Delivery, Renal and Fenwal Businesses
Welcome.
I want to thank everyone for attending today's event celebrating the launch
of an innovative collaboration between Baxter, Synnestvedt and the Long
Lake community.
I'd like to start by sharing with you how we got to this point, and the
many people that helped inspire this project and bring it to fruition,
not the least of whom is our Lake County board member Bonnie Thomson Carter.
Her vision and ability to serve as a catalyst for business and community
collaboration, and her dedication to environmental issues was a key factor
in bringing us here today.
With that said, it was just a little over a year ago that we sat down
with Bonnie and representatives from the Long Lake community to discuss
their concerns about the impact of Baxter's treated wastewater on Long
Lake and to identify common environmental objectives. This led to the
formation of the Long Lake Watershed Analysis Team, whose goal is to identify
and quantify the impact of the many sources across the hundreds of square
miles of watershed that drain into Long Lake.
[Introduce the team
and ask them to stand]
- Baxter Healthcare Corporation
- Gary E. Hanline
- Glenn Semple
- Tanya Tyska
- Jeff Wynveen
- Lake County Board, District #5
- Lake County Health Department
- Lake County Stormwater Management Commission
- Lake County Department of Public Works
- Long Lake Improvement and Sanitation Association
- Bill Axelsen
- Evie Cooper
- Nancy Dague
- Suzanne Harris
- Sander Sundberg
- Magalis and Associates, Inc.
This same team was instrumental in the achievement of a second objective,
that is to evaluate options that would allow the elimination of our discharge
of treated wastewater to Long Lake. They made us look at our discharge
in a different light. We began to consider the 240,000 gallons of daily
discharge as a valuable resource rather than a waste. By taking this approach
we were able to come up with a solution in line with the principles of
Sustainable Development.
I especially want to thank the Baxter Round Lake environment, health and
safety team and Patrick Engineering. A considerable amount of time, dedication
and research went into the identification and evaluation of options that
brought us to this point. These are the people behind the science that
is making this project work.
While the Long Lake team, our local environment, health and safety team
were critical to making this project happen. So were some other folks.
I want to thank Renee Cipriano, Tom McSwiggen and the other members of
the IEPA who have been so enthusiastic and supportive of this project.
Ever since we held our first meeting in Springfield earlier this year
to discuss the project they have worked to expedite the permitting process.
This truly is an example of the type of industry-government relationship
that will allow everyone to be a winner. We also very much appreciate
the show of support from our local elected officials Senator Bill Peterson
and Representative Mark Beaubien
And finally, I want to thank the folks from Synnestvedt, Matt and Earl,
for being open to what I'm sure sounded at first to be an outrageous idea.
We look forward to continuing as neighbors working to make this project
a huge success.
Now that I've shared how we got here, I'd like to explain what here is.
This water reclamation project involves us leasing approximately 185 acres
of land to Synnestvedt to be used to plant nursery stock. This nursery
stock will be irrigated with Baxter's treated wastewater. During times
when the nursery stock cannot be irrigated, the treated wastewater will
be retained in a storage pond for reuse at a later date.
This project will allow us to discontinue our treated wastewater discharge
to Long Lake, which was the original intent. Through the due diligence
process, however, we learned that by doing so would harm valuable wetlands
downstream. The beauty of this option is that it allows us the flexibility
to continue whatever level of discharge necessary to maintain these wetlands
and still reduce the impact of our discharge on Long Lake.
Some other innovative characteristics of this approach include:
- First and foremost is the collaboration of business and community
working toward common environmental goals.
- Unlike land application this will use fully treated wastewater. We
will continue to meet the discharge parameters of our permit while striving
for continuous improvement of the treatment process. In fact, in just
the last several months we improved our process, which resulted in the
reduction by nearly 60% of the amount of chlorine used to treat our
discharge.
- In supporting the growth of trees and shrubs, the project allows for
increased absorption of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, and
contributes to the company's efforts to limit global climate change.
- It will keep water in the watershed by beneficially reusing it in
the irrigation of nursery stock. At the same time, it will reduce the
amount of water that is removed from the local aquifer by replacing
what is currently being pumped by the nursery for use in irrigation
with the treated wastewater from Baxter.
- Last, but not least, it will result in the natural preservation of
approx. 185 acres of land.
- This tree planting ceremony marks the beginning of the project that
will be phased in over the next several years. Each year more acreage
will be converted to the planting of nursery stock till the amount planted
will be able to utilize the amount of wastewater that the Baxter Round
Lake facility generates.
- Another critical piece to the success of this project was executive
level support. We are fortunate to have an executive management team
at Baxter that is committed to environmental excellence, making this
a primary objective of the company. They have been behind us every step
of the way, which has made the job that much easier.
FOR ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION:
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- Media Contact:
- Tanya Tyska, 847-948-3256
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