TASMANIA'S PULP MILL    

The Full court of Australia’s Federal Court has rejected the latest legal attack on the approval of Gunns Pulp mill.

In a unanimous judgement the three judges threw out all grounds of appeal by a group of Victorian Lawyer activists.

This judgment has prompted the Tasmanian Government to demand that the Greens end these legal stunts

In an amazing turn around the greens have ignored the democratic vote in favour of the Pulp mill.  In the 2007 federal election, their leader told voters that a vote for Labor or Liberal was a vote for the pulp mill.  After over 80% of the electorate did just that, vote for the two major parties that approved the mill, the greens are now referring to “push polls” in a bid to continue the opposition to the mill.

In another amazing back flip the opponents have all but admitted that the pulp mill will have no impact on Old Growth forests, and have now changed their demands to only use FSC certified wood.

Knowing full well that Australian forest Standard and the PEFC has already accredited Tasmanian wood as both lawful and sustainable. Perhaps it is because a board member of the Australian branch of FSC is also the wilderness society employee who led another failed legal challenge against the pulp mill in 2007!

Hopefully such membership should not stop timber produced under PEFC from meeting the new FSC standard for controlled wood, and allowing Tasmania pulp to be rightfully marketed throughout the world as from sustainable sources.

Again Tasmania’s record on forest management has been under the international spotlight due to some media stunts outside Australian embassies and consulates in Switzerland, Ireland and Scotland.

These protests ignore the States record on forest management and reservation of 47% of its forests (IUCN target 10%) and the findings of the a special monitoring team of the world Heritage Commission that found the Tasmania forests to be well managed for both conservation and production.Environmental Management plan for Pulp mill to be world class.

January 2009 approval of Management Plan modules

Last year when the Federal Minister for the Environment granted approval to the mill, one of the conditions  was for Gunns limited to create and submit for approval  “an Environmental Impact Management Plan (EIMP)”.

The objective of the EIMP must be to ensure no adverse impacts on matters of national environmental significance as a result of the controlled action.

The deadline for submission of this plan was extended to 5 January 2009, with the Minister received recommendations from an Independent Expert Group.

In a letter on that day, the Minister approved modules C1, D, F, G, H, I, J, K and O.  Whilst he was satisfied with the scope of hydrodynamic modelling set out in module L and the other content of modules L, M and N, the Minister asked that these be resubmitted after the modelling is completed. The indicative time frame to undertake that modelling and to incorporate the findings in to the EIMP is 26 months, and thus these modules must be completed and approved by 3 March 2011. (See Minister letter and the Developers reaction to the approval of the EIMP.)

This condition 38 requiring modelling, along with another 47 conditions and the determination that the ECF pulp mill was a controlled action was in stark contrast to the Commonwealth reaction to the request to upgrade the Victorian Pulp Mill to ECF bleaching.

This mill at Maryvale requested to discharge treated effluent with a dioxin limit of 20pg/l into Bass Strait from a 1.2 km outfall at Delray Beach (see map). It also requested to use pulp wood from native forests and plantations.

The Commonwealth correctly determined that this mill would have no impact on Commonwealth Environmental Values and determined it was not a controlled action requiring approval or 48 conditions or an EIMP to be approved by the Minister and Independent Expert Group.

Such a group has been established for the Tasmanian Mill, and has recently been expanded to include the former head of the Australian Pulp and Paper institute, an academic pulp mill expert from Finland and a zoologist specializing in tropical rainforests.

Modules Submitted November 2008

The final environmental modules outlining the mill’s compliance with conditions laid down by the Chief Scientist had been submitted for approval to the Federal Government.

This has been a comprehensive process and represents a new international benchmark, the modules will be assessed by the Independent Expert Group and their advice is expected to be made to the Minister in January 2009.

The EIMP requires thorough and rigorous examination and this latest lodgment has enabled Gunns to address the issues raised by the Minister’s department and will also give the department, the IEG and the Minster an opportunity to ensure that every finalised module fully addresses all of the relevant environmental matters in the approval.

Federal Environment Minister has extended the time for the finalisation of sections of the Environment Impact Management plan to allow comprehensive assessment by the Independent Expert Group.  His media release can be read here.

The third module of the plan to manage the environmental impacts of the Gunns pulp mill project has been approved by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Hon Peter Garrett AM.

Module C relates to bulk earth works at the pulp mill site. This means the bulk earthworks can begin once vegetation has been cleared on the mill site.

The first two modules of the plan to manage the environmental impacts of the Gunns pulp mill project were approved on 1 February 2008 by the Minister.

These modules form the first part of the Environmental Impact Management Plan (EIMP) developed by Gunns as a condition of approval of the project under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The first two modules - an overview module, and the vegetation clearing module for the mill site - were assessed by the Independent Expert Group set up for this purpose, and also by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.