Myth busting - the Gunns pulp mill

A key issue is that the mill will use pulp wood arising from integrated saw log harvesting in native forests and pulp wood from specifically grown plantations. Both the RPDC process and the Commonwealth Assessment recognised that these forests were subject to sustainable management under the Regional Forest Agreement and as such the social, economic and environmental impacts are already being controlled so as to have no significant adverse impacts. The Federal court has confirmed that this recognition is valid.

Tasmanian forest management is also accredited under the Australian Forest Standard (AFS), the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) and forestry companies operate to the ISO 1400 Environmental Quality Standard. Forest reservation (PDF 1.15MB) has increased almost four-fold since the Wesley Vale debacle and Tasmania, for so long the battle ground of forest politics, has 47 per cent of its native forests reserved.

However groups such as the US based Rainforest Action Network have opposed the pulp mill, falsely claiming that “The chlorine-bleaching mill would also greatly pollute the atmosphere and surrounding marine environment, including the production of deadly chemicals such as dioxin and furan”.

The Tasmanian pulp mill will be ECF - Elemental chlorine free. The World Bank (PDF 545KB) has endorsed ECF and Tasmania’s own expert consultants - who looked at ECF and TCF bleaching - have reported that “PCDD and PCDF emissions in ECF and TCF effluents are about the same. If ECF bleaching is used, the emissions of 2,3,7,8-TCDD and 2,3,7,8-TCDF to water are lower than the limit of quantitation (US EPA Method 1613).”

Yet despite this finding Tasmanian commercial fishermen have expressed concerns that effluent could taint fish in the vicinity of the ocean outfall due to claims that the modelling of the dispersion of that effluent was inadequate. Calculations for dioxin levels (PDF 147KB) appear to ignore international experience and have been quoted in the hope of giving this criticism legitimacy.

A check of official government research reports to show where the fish including rock lobster, scallops, scale fish and abalone are located (PDF 561KB) reveals there is virtually no commercial fish being caught now, or likely to be in the future, near the pipeline.

These concerns over dispersion models ignore the fact there is already treated effluent from a Victorian pulp mill (also clean and green) being discharged into Bass Strait and that this effluent is rapidly diluted (PDF 286KB).

The myth that the dispersion modeling was inadequate and that pollution was going to hit the Commonwealth marine waters, the beach and the Tamar River originated from a photograph (PDF 501KB) of a non bleaching pulp mill outfall off Nye Beach Oregon.

If these myths are busted then the fishing industry should not be impacted upon.

The vineyard and tourism sectors have also expressed unease: these industries have been built up around Georgetown’s heavy industrial estate to date without concern: however, like fishing, these industries are vital to local economies. The Tasmanian Government and the developer who is also the part of the vineyard and tourism industry (PDF 387KB) located in the Tamar Valley have not ignored their concerns.

Around the world pulp mills, vineyards and tourism happily coexist. They do so in British Columbia, in Oregon, in Chile and throughout Europe including Portugal and the Bordeaux region in France. One concern is odour, which, according to one scientist, the Europeans call the “smell of money” but the developer has added extra design features to all but eliminate this problem and Ensis, the CSIRO joint venture is working towards elimination.

Public health has also been a feature of the debate. Launceston, about 30K south of the mill site regularly experiences an inversion layer which traps the smoke from wood heaters causing a problem with air quality. However the developer has used air quality modeling developed by CSIRO, and independently verified by Dr Peter Manins, Senior Research Scientist, Marine and Atmospheric Research, CSIRO. He told the ABC Four Corners program: