TASMANIA'S PULP MILL 
Home
Modern Kraft Pulp Mill approved for Tasmania's Bell Bay Industrial Site
A modern pulp mill at Tasmania's Bell Bay industrial site on the Tamar has been approved. This exciting project will add significant value to wood chips currently destined for export .
The Parliament of Tasmania approved the permit conditions on 30 August 2007 . The then Federal Minister for the Environment Malcolm Turnbull signed off on Commonwealth environmental values on 4 October 2007.
Gunns Pulp mill development is set to add $6.7 billion to Tasmania's economy, creating and securing jobs. The down stream processing a natural renewable resource in accordance with the conditions imposed by the State and Federal regulators will result in a win-win situation for Tasmania, Gunns Limited shareholders and the planet.
The modern mill will use best available technology to ensure its impact on the environment will be neutral, that its use of resources such as water and wood will be sustainable, and that permit conditions will ensure that adverse odour, particulate air pollution and toxic emissions will be absolutely minimised and within strict guidelines that protect human health workers and nearby communities surrounding this heavy industrial area.
With so much discussion and media coverage of the modern elemental chlorine free kraft pulp mill approved for the Tamar Valley, this site is intended to provide facts and details behind the headlines and an in depth look at some of the claims being made about the pulp mill that continue to be reported in the media.
As the pulp mill has been approved by both the Federal Government and the State Parliament it is not intended that the site convince the reader to be pro-mill or anti - mill but to provide a balance of information and resources to allow the reader to either make up their own minds or to provide a pathway to find out more about the mill to be able to make an informed opinion on what this approval means to them.
This site provides the detail behind the 30 second news grab and allows for follow up.
______________
Myths about Mill still need busting!
Despite five years of public scrutiny, a raft of reports, media examination and community debate, myths about the pulp mill are still circulating locally and throughout the world.
In Austria , in the first week of June 2009, Greenpeace held an anti pulp mill protest that targeted European banks and equipment manufacturer Andritz and its workers and their families. But their web site (Google English translation) and a handout failed to tell the truth that the pulp mill would be plantation based, Elemental Chlorine Free kraft pulp mill complying with international best practice.
An analysis of the mythical claims compared to the facts can be downloaded (right click to save) , all available from published information available on the internet. It makes you wonder why Greenpeace failed to check the facts before their media stunt.
Let’s not miss the opportunity to further add value to woodchips currently being exported. Nor the opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint by creating local jobs in Tasmania not shipping them off shore.
Approved Tamar Valley Pulp Mill fully addresses water, odour and business impact
A January 2010 opposition newsletter is wrong on pulp mill and repeats claims that were fully investigated and dealt with in 2007 before the Pulp mill was approved by the Tasmanian and Australian governments.
The newsletter, that appears to be nothing more than propaganda designed to whip up fear and opposition on the elemental chlorine free bleached kraft mill, makes claims on water use, odour at a mill in Tumut, NSW, and industrial fog in a mill in southern USA.
The newsletter and opponents have continually claimed that plantations that will supply the pulpwood will cause a dramatic decrease in fresh water availability. The latest CSIRO modelling on sustainable yield shows only an insignificant 0.3% decrease by 2030 due to future development.
The news letter tells of a white out multi vehicle accident in 1990 on a US highway built over the waste water treatment ponds of an existing newsprint mill, but only tells part of the story. Factual details of the Tennessee incident that show such an incident is extremely unlikely at Bell Bay are included in a report on the Hiwassee Valley.
The newsletter also tells of odour problems at the Tumut Mill, but fails to state that a former assessment panel member and vocal critic of the Tamar mill, ‘fixed’ the problem at Tumut to such a degree that when the mill sought to expand only one submission raised odour as a problem. A history of the Tumut mill shows that there is not an adverse impact, but that local businesses benefit from the mill.
The issue of this flawed newsletter only three months before a State election appears to be more about politics than working with the developer to provide accurate and balanced information to the local community.
Tasmania’s Pulp mill now to be 100% Plantations based
Gunns Limited, the developer of the approved pulp mill, has announced that the pulp mill will be 100% plantation based from commencement of operations, rather than having a phase in period of fibre from regrowth native forests.
The appointment of Gunns as Responsible Entity for nine former Great Southern timber managed investment schemes gave the Company the security of supply it needed. Prior to this, it was not possible for Gunns to guarantee supply to the mill of 100 per cent plantation timber until five years after commencement of mill operations.
This latest announcement, (read in full) means that the mill’s environmental credentials can be marketed worldwide as it already designed to use only world’s best practice and elemental chlorine free technology. Having the pulp mill as a market for managed investment plantations , means the thousands of small “Mum and Dad” investors can look forward to a real return on their stake in growing carbon friendly trees.
Approved Pulp Mill still draws protests
Despite the value adding pulp mill being approved by both the State Parliament and the Federal government for over two years, there is still protest action. The latest being the arrest of a wilderness campaigner- media gardener who was part of a group that chose to protest on the entrance of Parliament House rather than on the lawful location of the Parliament’s lawn.
Such action is often portrayed as a community event, but such campaigns require monetary support, and the reaction to the celebrity, Mr Cundall’s arrest has exposed links between activists, protesters and interstate funding groups determined to create ‘social change’.
A new briefing paper shows how Victoria’s Reichstein Foundation is funding the activities of the Fitzroy Legal centre where Mr Cundall is patron, as well as bankrolling the Wilderness Society to undertake the ‘community’ campaign against the pulp mill.
Tasmania's forests and fire
Find out about Tasmania's Ancient Bushfire Heritage and managing Tasmania's bushfire environment .
______________
CLICK on the links to get the latest information!
