BAILEYVILLE – Despite paper industry slowdowns and layoffs statewide this year, the manager of Domtar Industries’ Woodland mill told community leaders Tuesday her operation is still making headway.

Of Maine’s 13 pulp and paper manufacturers, Domtar’s Woodland operation is one of only four mills that has not experienced major layoffs and shutdowns this year, said manager Debbie Feck.

“We’ve tried to look at consolidating departments when we can,” she said at a luncheon. When an employee moves on, either due to retirement or for personal reasons, that position is evaluated before it is filled.

Consolidation is less emotional this way, she said. “We haven’t had to do it in such a way that it shakes everybody up.”

The mill, with 554 employees and an annual payroll of $39 million, is Washington County’s largest employer.

“Hopefully, I’ve given you a little bit of confidence that we will be here next year,” Feck told the leaders.

A discharge of 100,000 gallons of black liquor used in papermaking from the Woodland mill into the St. Croix River last September is primary among the reasons Domtar has agreed to pay the state $88,000 in water quality and wastewater discharge fines.

The state Board of Environmental Protection is scheduled to approve the fines Thursday.

Feck told the leaders the company has made a “number of accomplishments environmentally” in the past year and now meets industry standards for environmental certification.

She said the company has recognized it has had environmental problems recently and has created a vulnerability plan, she said, part of a program that tries to anticipate future issues and problems and prevent them.

As part of this process, the mill is evaluating and upgrading piping inside and out, and has installed a new liner in the spill pond that prevents waste from going into the river.

“We’ve really been convinced that if there’s anything that can go wrong, it’s going to go wrong for us,” Feck said.

Tired of having to report leaks and spills, mill management is working hard to solve the problems, she said.

Guy Boucher, vice president of environmental affairs for Montreal-based Domtar, said the company recognized the real work on environmental problems is done at the mill level.

“Great progress has been made at the Woodland mill in the last few years,” Boucher said.

Stressing the combination of three major “sustainability” components, Boucher outlined the financial, social and environmental aspects of the mill as part of what he called “tripod theory”: “If one is too low or too high, the whole balance is out of whack,” he said.

Domtar strives toward sustainable growth that stems from this theory, he said. “Growth comes with expansion,” Boucher said. “Growth comes with new products.”

Feck said she could not make specific dollar predictions as to this year’s profits, but anticipates a good year for the company.

Noting that in the past eight months wood costs have gone up 40 percent, she said a better customer base and new paper grades have put the mill in a good position competitively.

“We’ve become – for the first time in my opinion – important,” Feck said.