Gunns knew fugitive emission would be a problem years ago

KIM BOOTH, Govt Should Release Relevant RPDC Documents, www.tas.greens.org.au And, Read Conor Duffy’s 7.30 Report report, below or link: Here. And refuting the Chipman Bordeaux argument

The Tasmanian Greens today called on Health Minister Lara Giddings to reveal what measures have been taken to address fugitive emissions from Gunns proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill, following bombshell revelations aired overnight on ABC’s 7:30 Report that the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) had warned that the proposed mill will definitely emit fugitive odours.
Greens Pulp Mill spokesperson Kim Booth MP said it is now evident that the RPDC clearly spelled out its’ serious concerns over fugitive emissions to Gunns Limited more than four years ago, but that those concerns had subsequently been ignored by Gunns and the State Labor Government.

Mr Booth also sought to table the correspondence between the RPDC Executive Commissioner and Gunns Limited during Question Time, and described as “extraordinary” the Bartlett Government’s refusal to allow him to do so, and called for the full public release of all the RPDC panel’s documentation from the aborted pulp mill assessment.

“Crucial correspondence from the RPDC head to Gunns has now become publicly available, which makes clear that the serious matter of fugitive emissions from the proposed pulp mill was an area of critical concern to the assessment panel, which is all the move significant as Labor’s consultant Sweco Pic did not assess this aspect either,” Mr Booth said.

“Following these revelations the Health Minister must now reveal what measures have been taken to address the fugitive emissions that we know will occur if Gunns ever gets their way and builds a polluting pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.”

“This documentation, and the failure of Labor’s farce of an assessment process, reinforces why fugitive emissions are still very much a live and critical issue, especially to those Tasmanians who live and work in the Tamar valley airshed.

“The RPDC clearly told Gunns four years ago that fugitive emissions will have a serious affect on the Tamar Valley, but Gunns and the Labor Government walked away from that assessment process, and now there is no mechanism by which to assess these noxious emissions.”

“The Bartlett Government’s decision to refuse to allow the relevant documents to be tabled in Parliament today makes them complicit in the ongoing campaign to ignore legitimate concerns about fugitive emissions from the proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill. So much for the Premier’s much-touted ‘line in the sand’ about ongoing government assistance for this pulp mill.”

“Instead of continuing to ignore the serious issue of fugitive emissions, the Bartlett Government should just come clean and release all the RPDC panel’s documentation on the pulp mill assessment – that process was cut short years ago, so what would be the harm in releasing all those documents now?,” said Mr Booth.

Download:

· Letter sent from the RPDC Executive Commissioner to Gunns Limited, 6 July 2005: Jul1_RPDCToGunns20050706_K_Booth_ATTACH.pdf

· Gunns Limited letter in response, 12 July 2005: Jul1_GunnsToRPDC20050712_K_Booth_ATTACH.pdf

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Leaked documents confirm resident’s fear of foul pulp mill

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 30/06/2009

Reporter: Conor Duffy

For years some residents of the Tamar Valley, where timber giant Gunns plans to build a massive pulp mill, have worried that the mill would leave foul odours and adversely affect the region’s wine and tourism industries. Now, documents that have been secret for four years show Tasmania’s peak planning body, the RDCP shared those concerns and was worried emissions from the mill could affect the quality of life for the people that live near it.
Transcript
KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: The plan by timber giant Gunns to build a massive pulp mill in Tasmania’s north is the biggest private investment in the Apple Isle’s history and has captured attention across the country, particularly during the last election. For years some residents of the Tamar Valley have claimed that the mill would leave foul odours and would adversely affect the region’s wine and tourism industries.

Tonight the 7.30 Report reveals documents that have been secret for four years that show Tasmania’s peak planning body the RPDC shared those concerns, and was worried emissions from the mill could affect the quality of life for the people living nearby. For its part, Gunns insists it’s addressed all the issues raised by the RPCD and earlier this week announced it was a step closer to getting the project off the ground.

Conor Duffy reports from Hobart.

PETER WHISH-WILSON, VINEYARD OWNER: Some mornings you get up and, you know, you are breathing the cleanest air in the world, you walk out, light sunshine, fog, and suddenly you look up, and suddenly you look up and there’s a shadow passing over, and it’s a wedge tail eagle.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: The Tamar Valley in Tasmania’s north is one of the state’s most picturesque tourist regions. Its lush hills and rivers is home to some of the country’s finest wines, but for the past five years it’s the backdrop to a bitter fight over Tasmania’s future.

Timber giant Gunns, one of the State’s largest private employers wants to build a $2 billion mill that would produce more than a million tons of pulp for local and export use.

It’s a move that’s infuriated some local residents, including wine maker Peter Whish-Wilson.

PETER WHISH-WILSON: Wineries and pulp mills don’t co-exist anywhere in the world in close proximity except one place in South America. The evidence we have, including from politicians who have visited the area in Tasmania, is there’s significant problems with local wineries and pulp mills, particularly with foul rotten odours and people being shied away from visiting their cellar doors.

CONOR DUFFY: But timber groups say wineries and pulp mills can and do live happily side by side.

BARRY CHIPMAN, TIMBER COMMUNITIES AUSTRALIA: In Bordeaux, along with a very important wine industry, promoted as the wine capital of the world, they also have a vibrant forest industry and they have ECS pulp mills.

CONOR DUFFY: Gunns’ proposal to build the mill has gained the key support of the union movement, which says it will deliver thousands of jobs.

UNION OFFICIAL: People are bleeding with mortgages to pay, families to feed.

CONOR DUFFY: The construction forestry and mining union has been lobbying for months to gain support for the mill. Last week it won over the Federal Forestry Minister Tony Burke who made his first major statement on the mill.

TONY BURKE, FEDERAL FORESTRY MINISTER: The Gunns Bell Bay pulp mill will be good for jobs, good for industry and good for Australia.

CONOR DUFFY: It’s a key step forward for Gunns which yesterday announced it was finalising negotiations with an undisclosed partner for the mill.

BARRY CHIPMAN: It is a major step forward and we actually now have a rainbow after a lot of stormy days.

CONOR DUFFY: But as Gunns moves closer to starting construction at its Bell Bay site, the 7.30 Report reveals new documents showing that Tasmania’s independent Resource, Planning and Development Commission expressed concerns about its potential impact on the Tamar Valley four years ago. The RPDC was asked by Government to look at all the issues involved with building the mill.

In July 2005, the head of the RPDC Julian Green wrote to Gunn’s chief John Gay saying he was worried about odours or fugitive emissions escaping from the mill.

The 7.30 Report contacted Julian Green who refused to comment, but his fellow RPDC member Warwick Rafferty said the panel was very concerned about fugitive emissions.

WARWICK RAFFERTY, FORMER RPDC EXPERT PANEL MEMBER: The chemicals in pulp mill odours are some of the most objectionable smelling compounds known to science. The worst is methyl mercaptan, which smells like stale sewage.

CONOR DUFFY: Warwick Rafferty visited Sweden in 2006 with Julian Green to observe world’s best practice pulp mills.

WARWICK RAFFERTY: When we got out of the minibus in the car park Julian Green very quickly became distressed – he couldn’t breathe. I found the odour intensely objectionable, and within a matter of minutes, Julian Green was gasping and saying: “For God’s sake get me out of here.”

CONOR DUFFY: The July 2005 letter from Julian Green goes on to say that issues of emissions and odours are particularly sensitive in the Tamar Valley.

The letter finishes with a sternly worded rebuke.

In early 2007 Gunns withdrew from the RPDC assessment, and critics say the issue of fugitive emissions wasn’t properly dealt with by the fast-track assessment process set up by former premier Paul Lennon.

PAUL OOSTING, THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY: What this shows is that the state government shouldn’t have approved Gunns’ proposed pulp mill. Clearly the RPDC were unhappy with Gunns’ project and were angling towards not approving it.

BARRY CHIPMAN: We only have to look at when the chief scientist assessed the mill with an independent panel of qualified scientific people. The chief scientist after that assessment said if the pulp mill meets all the conditions that he has placed upon it, it will be environmentally neutral.

CONOR DUFFY: The 7.30 Report has also obtained a letter Gunns sent to the RPDC in response in which it said it would address the issue of fugitive emissions in its draft integrated impact statement.

Gunns declined to be interviewed but in a statement to the 7.30 Report the company says it has since provided a comprehensive response to the issue.

Pulp and paper analyst Robert Eastment supports the view and visited modern mills in Europe.

ROBERT EASTMENT, PULP AND PAPER ANALYST: 15, 20 years ago there was no doubt that the paper industry around the world was right on the nose in more ways than one. But now modern mills have improved considerably, considerably to clean up their emissions odours and everything.

CONOR DUFFY: But in the Tamar Valley many residents remain unconvinced.

PETER WHISH-WILSON: We have been told how fantastic this pulp mill is and that there’s not going to be any odours, unlike any other pulp mill in the world – that this one is going to be different. All we’ve asked for is an insurance policy, and that is really strict regulatory levels and if they are succeeded that the pulp mill be closed down until it’s fixed.

We haven’t been given any of those conditions at all.

ROBERT EASTMENT: Gunns have taken considerable efforts in the design of the mill, I believe, to really limit or reduce any opportunity of some emissions. That being said, no one knows until the mill is built.

TAP: Refuting the Chipman Bordeaux argument:

THE BORDEAUX WINE / KRAFT MILL ARGUMENT

– (Gospel according to Chipman)

Chipman often argues that the Bordeaux wine district works well with vineyards close by and no odour. Dr Raverty has determined that there are Kraft Pulp Mills in France and only one near vineyards, (making it only 1 % of the vineyards within the Rhone Valley).

Kraft mills are; ‘Smurfit’, ‘Saillat Kraft pulp mill’, ‘Saint-Gaudens Kraft mill’ and the ‘Tarascon Kraft mill’

The nearest Kraft mill is the Smurfit mill at least 50km from the nearest vineyard. This is a Kraft pulp mill that uses non bleaching technology. This mill would still emit the same fugitive odours as a Kraft -bleaching mill and is the closest mill to the Bordeaux wine regions. It would be the equivalent distance from the mill site to Longford or Deloraine.
The Saillat Kraft pulp mill, owned by US-based International Paper – in Saillat sur Vienne, near Limousin. This vineyard is in the Bordeaux region and 220 km downwind of the mill. Would Tasmanians say that Launceston exists alongside the summit of Mt. Wellington? That is the equivalent distance that the Saillat Kraft pulp mill is from the Bordeaux region!

3. Parts of the Cognac wine region are closer, but no closer than 80 km – well outside the 55 km ‘sacrifice zone’ (odour zone), however The closer you get to the mill, the lower the quality of the cognac produced. The official French Tourism website ( http://www.francetourism.com/practicalinfo/vineyards.htm ) has this to say about the region closest to the mill, Bois Ordinaires: (Ordinary Wood).

The Saint-Gaudens Kraft mill, owned by Canadian company Tembec and 260,000 tonnes per year capacity (22% of Gunns’), in the foothills of the Pyrenees, near the Spanish border that is 200 km from the nearest vineyard (in a region called the Languedoc). Nowhere near Bordeaux!

The Tarascon Kraft mill near Nimes, (Marseilles)- owned by Canadian company Tembec and 260,000 tonnes per year capacity, (22% of Gunns’). It is only 10 km from the nearest vineyards in the Languedoc and 35 km from a small number of vineyards in the Rhone Valley – well over 99% of the Rhone Valley vineyards are well outside the 55 km sacrifice zone
6. Tarascon Kraft Pulp Mill has ODOUR PROBLEMS – sufficient odour problems to warrant the setting up of a panel of ‘nose volunteers’ (aka an odour panel) and to have spent Euro 4 million in 2001 to upgrade the seals on 30 of their liquor storage vessels WITHOUT FIXING THE PROBLEM! ‘

Things haven’t got any better for Tarascon Kraft mill in the past 2 years! In fact, things have got much worse in 2008 – Tarascon Mill has been ‘upgraded by the volunteer noses from ‘medium’ to ‘strong’. Tarascon Kraft Mill smells so lovely that the French have plonked a brand new high security prison right next door to it.