When Howard Hedstrom, president of Hedstrom Lumber Company asked Minnesota Representative David Dill and Senator Tom Bakk to introduce a bill that would allow the mill to run its boiler at a higher than now allowed pressure (unattended) during the night, he didn’t know he was setting off a firestorm of criticism.
“We’ve invested a lot of money to help drying wood. To maximize the drying process we need to run the boiler at night at a greater pressure than we are now allowed to so it can feed the dry kiln,” explained Hedstrom, adding, “We’re in a very competitive market. We are trying to make investments that will keep us in the game.”
But Reed Sprung worries that some of the 31,000 licensed boiler operators in the state could lose their jobs if this addendum to the Minnesota House’s Housekeeping Bill 2198 goes through.
Reed and his wife Theresa operate Sprung Services, Inc. out of New Brighton, Minnesota. The company specializes in providing businesses with low and high-pressure boiler operators and offers a wide array of services that include maintenance, repairs, training to obtain boiler’s licenses and water treatment services for the industry.
In an e-mail to the Cook County News-Herald Reed Sprung asked, “Will this bill add jobs or will we lose jobs and cause wages to go down? Will it increase safety or decrease safety?
“This law is an attempt to run high pressure boilers (probably with a turbine-generator) without staffing it according to current law, if at all. There is no precedent for this and there is also no basis. Nothing about a sawmill makes a boiler any safer than any other boiler. This would cause all the other boiler owners throughout the state to say ‘me too.’ This would result in completely dismantling the high-pressure boiler license law in Minnesota. If this happens, even the people with low pressure licenses would be affected,” said Sprung.
The bill that Sprung is referring to is meandering its way through the Minnesota Legislature right now and has several components. One asks for an exception for certain resort owners to have plumbing licenses; other language asks for modifying municipal building code enforcement for certain buildings.
But what really stirred the pot was the rule change proposed for Hedstrom’s mill.
“When Senator Bakk introduced the language to the Senate it passed 67-0. By the time I introduced it to the House a week later there was a furor over it,” said Representative David Dill, who said those making the most noise weren’t taking the time to understand just what had been proposed.
“Howard [Hedstrom] has six boiler operators. He isn’t remotely suggesting that he won’t have operators running his boiler. He is asking that for a few hours every day that he doesn’t have to have someone on site,” said Representative Dill.
What amendment 26.22e states is this: Sawmills, located in a county with a population of less than 8,000 according to last federal census and that utilizes steam for the drying of lumber, are not required to meet the high pressure boiler attendance requirements set fourth in Minnesota rules, part 5225.1180, only if all of the following conditions are met.
“The boiler must be equipped with electronic control systems that are remotely operated but which require a site manual reset of system faults; remotely monitored for log water levels, boiler pressure, and steam flow; has automatic safety mechanisms built into the remote monitoring systems that send an alarm upon detection of a fault condition, and an onsite alarm that will sound upon detection of a fault condition, and which may be heard at a distance of 500 feet; has a third party water treatment company; and is attended on site by a licensed boiler at least two times in a 24-hour period. If the boiler is not attended more than twice in a 24-hour period, the period between checks must not be less than eight hours.”
Hedstrom, who has a chief ’s boiler license, said his mill has met all of those conditions and that what he has asked for already occurs in mills in nearby states like Wisconsin.
“This isn’t about causing people to lose their jobs. It’s about staying competitive in a very competitive global market,” said Hedstrom.
Hedstrom Lumber currently has six employees certified to run high-pressure boilers and has no intention of letting any of them go if this bill passes. Hedstrom said it takes a lot of diligence to keep a boiler in tiptop operating shape and to do otherwise would hurt his operation.
Boiler operator trainer Theresa Sprung said in an e-mail, “Aside from safety concerns, there are over 8,000 Minnesota jobs as high pressure boiler operators. These changes could eliminate half of these jobs in just few years, and then even more as time goes on. Almost half of the 8,000 jobs are currently held by Navy veterans.”
But Representative Dill said those worried about the addendum to the bill should slow down and read it.
“This was written for Hedstrom Lumber Company. No one else. No one else in fact meets the criteria of this language. The bill also requires agencies to come back with any changes in conference committees and it sunsets in 2016. It is designed to help Hedstrom’s keep employees and maybe add some more. Truckers will be able to truck more finished wood and more logs to the mill. It should create more jobs for the area. It isn’t written so that people will lose their jobs. People need to read the bill before they jump to any conclusions,” Dill said.
The final bill is expected to be voted on May 19, said Dill.
Loading Comments