Blue Ridge Paper Products will spend $8.2 million over the next 11 months to reduce air pollution emitted from its paper mill in Canton.

The reductions will target volatile organic compound emissions, which are released from wood chips when the chips go through the pulping process. The company will install state-of-the-art pollution control technology to capture and destroy the VOCs, reducing emissions of the compound by more than 600,000 pounds per year.

While some level of VOC reductions are being required by the U.S. Environmental Protection, the Canton mill is reducing emissions by substantially more than what is required by the program according to Bob Williams, Blue Ridge Paper Director of Regulatory Affairs.

“As with all environmental improvements, we try to go above and beyond what the regulations require,” Williams said.

Blue Ridge Paper is a charter member of the EPA’s Environmental Achievement Track Program, which recognizes businesses that outperform regulatory requirements to protect public health and the environment.

The move will improve air quality for Western North Carolina, according to Blue Ridge Paper Product’s CEO Richard Lozyniak. Construction is scheduled to begin in July and will take about nine months to complete, Lozyniak said.

“Air quality improvements are very important for all of us who live and work in Western North Carolina. Since the formation of Blue Ridge Paper Products in 1999, we have invested more than $25 million in environmental improvements because we know our future depends on our ability to meet environmental expectations as well as the competitive demands of the international marketplace,” Lozyniak said.

The measure is in the third phase of an ongoing air quality improvement initiative that began in 2002.

“We’ve already reduced nitrogen oxides by more than 50 percent year-round and further reduced particulate matter emissions,” said Williams.

Blue Ridge Paper Products is owned by KPS Special Situations Fund, L.P., and by the employees of Blue Ridge Paper through an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). For more information, visit www.blueridgepaper.com.