Domtar construction on wastewater project remains on schedule

KINGSPORT — A new wastewater treatment system at Domtar's Kingsport mill is still on schedule to start running later this year, part of an effort by the mill to mitigate odors affecting neighboring residents. Mill Manager Tony Clary updated the Kingsport Economic Development Board on the project's timeline, the construction of an anaerobic digester, at the board's monthly meeting Tuesday. The project is in some of its final stages, and the new system is expected to ramp up at the end of the year. Domtar received approval from CSX Transportation to complete work over the railway by the project, which Clary said was one of the last permitting "hurdles." Commissioning will begin at the end of September. "We're all looking good from a project perspective," he said. Clary said about 13 companies were onsite for the project in August. In a previous April meeting, Clary said that August would be a "critical milestone" to tie in the new digester system during a multi-day outage where the entire mill would be down. The mill completed its outage and resumed normal operations Monday morning. The project is expected to close out early next year. "It's pretty nice to see that the timeline has continued to stay accurate," KEDB Chair Craig Denison said. "Because I know when we first even started talking about the project, it was iffy about when materials and those types of things might be able to come in." The mill faced scrutiny from city officials and residents over odors emitting from its wastewater after the site converted from manufacturing paper to recycling containerboard in 2023. The company secured funding to construct a new wastewater treatment system in December 2024 and broke ground in August 2025. Two Kingsport residents filed a federal lawsuit against Domtar in February alleging odors from the mill have kept them from fully using and enjoying their property and engaging in outdoor activities. Domtar is scheduled to continue giving the Kingsport Economic Development Board updates on its odor mitigation efforts, including the construction of the anaerobic digester, at its monthly meetings. Jorgelina Manna-Rea is a Report for America corps member reporting on issues relating to the environment for Six Rivers Media.