Letter to The Ecologist

Stuart Robertson and Jane Barber

Dear Zac (Goldsmith),

We want to bring to your attention the likelihood of an imminent environmental disaster in Tasmania.

As you probably know, Tasmanian environmentalists have had a long-running battle with the State Government and logging industry over unacceptable forestry practices involving clear-felling of pristine old forests as well as the improper use of pesticides, herbicides and the poisoning of wildlife carried out in new-growth plantations.
The situation is about to become much worse as the Federal and State Governments appear to be on the verge of giving the go-ahead for the construction of a pulp mill on the Tamar river in the north of the state.

The company behind the proposal is Gunns Limited. Gunns has a virtual monopoly on forestry in Tasmania and is the world¹s largest producer of hardwood chip exporting some 3.5 million tonnes per annum. Their proposal is for a bleached eucalypt Kraft mill that will consume 4 million tonnes of wood chip yearly, 80% coming from Tasmania¹s native forests and the remainder from plantation. The mill will use sulphur to make the pulp and chlorine to bleach it. This process will have major impacts on the environment.

• It will use 26 billion litres of water per annum in an area that has just experienced its driest year on record following a 10 year period of below average rainfall. This trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. The mill will require a massive increase in plantation growth with huge extra demands on groundwater and irrigation.

• 30 billion litres of effluent containing organochlorines, including dioxin and furans, will be pumped into Bass Strait every year threatening marine life and fisheries.

• Emissions to the atmosphere including nitrous oxides and sulphur compounds would cause serious health problems. The site for the mill is in the north of the Tamar Valley which already has periods of atrocious air quality caused by inversion layers trapping wood smoke from domestic fires and forestry burn-offs. Gunns has failed to provide adequate information on emission levels and has been roundly criticised for not committing to air pollution guidelines by both the Australian Medical Association and CSIRO, Australia¹s leading scientific organisation.

The current situation is that, amidst a flurry of controversy, the State Government, which openly supports the project, has recently abandoned the independent public assessment process being conducted by the Resource Planning and Development Commission following Gunns¹ withdrawal from that process. The State Government are passing legislation allowing them to approve the project following advice from a yet-to-be-named private consultant. There will be no further public consultations. The Federal Government must also give its approval under the terms of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Assessment Act but they will concentrate largely on issues of possible threats to marine life in Commonwealth waters or to endangered species.

If this pulp mill is constructed, as seems very likely, the consequences for Tasmania and its wonderful (ecology) will be catastrophic and we ask you to do whatever you can to help prevent this from happening.

There is, of course, much more we could say on this issue so please contact us if you need any additional information. We have listed some useful reference resources for more background and public comment.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Robertson and Jane Barber

Useful reference resources.

Gunns Limited http://www.gunnspulpmill.com.au/
RPDC http://www.rpdc.tas.gov.au/poss/pulp
Federal Government
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=referral_detail&p
roposal_id=3385
Wilderness Society
http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/gunns_proposed_pulp_
mill/pulp_mill_risks/
Tasmanian Against the Pulp Mill http://tapvision.info/
Tasmanian Times http://www.oldtt.pixelkey.biz/
Bank Track http://www.banktrack.org/?show=dodgy&id=74
Australian Medical Association ­ Tasmania http://amatas.com.au/issues.html