Mississippi Mud is No Match for Minnesota Paper Mill

Making wood and water come together to create high quality production-graded paper is the business of Blandin Paper, a subsidiary of UPM-Kymmene located in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The water used in Blandin's paper mills comes directly from the Mississippi River. It flows through a 24-inch pipe at a rate of 4,200 gallons per minute (with a maximum capacity of 10,000 gallons per minute) via two online pumps of 400 hp and 350 hp, respectively. But Blandin Paper does not have to worry about sludge and other impurities from the Mississippi River contaminating its processing equipment and compromising the quality of its paper. The plant has installed four new, state-of-the-art, automatic Tekleen® water filters with 150-micron stainless steel screens to trap any debris that may be dredged up from the river.