State officials today will inspect all of Great Northern Paper Inc.’s environmental systems to make sure they are operating properly in light of the fact the company’s paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket have been idle for a month.

Officials want to make sure there is a plan to preserve the assets, which means keeping the facilities heated so various systems, including the wastewater treatment systems, operate properly should someone want to buy the company and restart the mills.

Ed Logue, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s eastern Maine regional director, said the agency was very concerned about the viability of the paper mills should they reopen.

Logue said the problem was that warm water was not going through the tanks and the severe cold temperatures expected during the next few days could further damage the treatment system. “We are concerned about structural integrity if the tanks freeze and about the biological viability of the systems,” he said.

Logue said no waste was being produced at the mills, but some was left in the tanks from earlier operations.

An elbow on the main effluent pipeline that runs from the Millinocket mill to the treatment plant broke last weekend.

Brian Stetson, GNP’s environmental manager, said steel elbows on the large fiberglass pipe had failed earlier so all but two that are encased in concrete were replaced. He said the sediments that move with water in the pipe bounce along the bottom acting like sandpaper, which causes the bottom of the pipe to erode away. “We have been maintaining a flow of water through the pipeline to keep the treatment plant functional and from freezing,” he said.

Logue said the incident was not a big deal but was a technical violation because water was bypassing the system. With no warm water being pumped into the pond or lagoon, he said it could freeze.

“The problem is these plants are designed to run, not to remain idle, so they don’t run as efficiently [when idle],” said Logue.

He said the team will review each system, including the wastewater treatment plants, the landfill, the boilers and large tanks of stored chemicals. “We have to make sure there is enough heat in the mills to maintain the systems and if we are looking at an extended shutdown, some chemicals may need to be removed because they may have a shelf life.”