Sifter

It’s a drag when major industries such as Chico’s Fleetwood Motor Homes and Oroville’s Koppers and Louisiana Pacific (L-P) plants shut down, as Fleetwood did in 1999 and Koppers and L-P in 2000. Hundreds of folks are thrown out of work and the local economy takes a hard hit. But there’s an upside to the closure of these old-technology facilities: less pollution. The companies mentioned were among the biggest air polluters in Butte County, as indicated by the data below, compiled by the Right-to-Know Network from federal Environmental Protection Agency databases. Below are the county’s three major polluters from 1998 through 2003, the last year for which data are available.

Facility name City Total onsite releases (lbs.) Total waste (lbs.)

1998

Koppers Oroville 13,275 277,600

L-P Oroville 213,542 213,542

Fleetwood Chico 14,358 16,542

1999

L-P Oroville 108,000 197,000

Koppers Oroville 11,454 23,090

Fleetwood Chico 14,355 14,755

2000

L-P Oroville 82,500 100,000

Koppers Oroville 32,161 45,646

Alternative Materials Tech. Chico 814 8,407

2001

Alternative Materials Tech. Chico 482 3,191

Spectra-Physics Oroville 0 1,632

U.S.F.S. airtanker base Chico 500 142

2002

Alternative Materials Tech. Chico 401 9,433

Spectra-Physics Oroville 0 1,408

Ammunition Accessories Inc. Oroville 0 984

2003

Alternative Materials Tech. Chico 310 4,761

Amunition Accessories Inc. Oroville 0 1,085

Spectra-Physics Oroville 0 2,035