Photographer : Trevor Lowe @ Flickr
Gunns Limited’s proposed $1.9 billion Bell Bay Pulp Mill was one of the major environmental issues of the 2007 federal election. Approved by the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian federal government prior to the election, the mill received heavy criticism from local residents, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and the Greens Party for its potentially devastating effects on the environment.
According to a WIN Television poll conducted in July 2007, only 25 per cent of the Tamar Valley’s local residents were favour of the project. This is despite the fact that Gunns said the mill would be the ‘world’s greenest’, utilise the ‘best global technology’, and add $6.7 billion to the Tasmanian economy
Locals opposed to the mill said that the methods proposed by Gunns, to minimise environmental impact, were inadequate and that the pulp mill could deplete the region’s natural resources and cause long term damage. Many claimed that the project has been fast-tracked by both levels of government due to the financial power of Gunns, which has an annual turnover of approximately $700 million and is Australia’s largest hard wood forest products company.
The Greens Party has also been heavily critical of both the Tasmanian and former federal governments’ handling of the issue. Greens senator Dr Richard Di Natale, in the lead up to the 2007 federal election, said that the federal and state government were ‘creating the illusion they are serious about climate change but they are promoting greenhouse polluting projects that will only make the problem worse’.
NGOs, including the Wilderness Society and Tasmanians Against the Pulp mill (TAP), have also fought vigorously against the mill. They believe the project should be moved to Hampshire in the state’s North West where there is a higher level of plantation forests and less possibility for widespread damage to the environment. Furthermore, according to NGOs opposed to the project, the Bell Bay site will mill old growth forests primarily to produce woodchips. And let’s face it, for the production of woodchips there are simply too many environmental concerns surrounding the project.
A map of Tasmania’s plantations, showing that most of the plantation wood is located on the other side of Northern Tasmania, not on Gunns’ proposed site at Bell Bay.
The environmental consequences
Native forests
According to the Environmental Impact Statement released by Gunns, 80 per cent of the mill’s initial production will be based on native forest wood logged from the Great Western Tiers, North-East Highlands and Ben Lomond forests—all threatened wilderness areas.
The ocean and marine life
The Bell Bay Pulp Mill will generate 64,000 tonnes of toxic effluent annually, and with the mill located so close to Bass Strait this effluent could leak directly into Northern Tasmania’s ocean ways and have devastating effects for the region’s sea life.
Wildlife
Scientists have warned that Gunns’ planned logging in Tasmania’s north-east threatens the animals and birds with possible extinction. Threatened animals include the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, the spotted-tail quoll (native cat) and the giant freshwater crayfish.
Water
The pulp mill will consume 25 to 40 billion litres of fresh water each year—almost as much as the combined annual use of all of Northern Tasmania.
The climate
According to Gunns, the pulp mill will use four million tonnes of wood for pulping and 500,000 tonnes for [the mill’s] power generation each year. The Wilderness Society claims this will produce, over a 25 year period, greenhouse gases equivalent to the carbon dioxide released by all the cars, trucks and buses in Tasmania over an 80 year period.
What has been the impact of action against the mill?
Following the initial approval of the mill, The Tasmanian people and the key environmental NGOs, through their commitment to protesting, forced the federal government to attach 48 environmental conditions to the project. These include:
- An Environmental Impact Management Plan that will force Gunns to adhere to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC). This includes monitoring the pulp mill’s effluent levels, establishing sanctuary areas for native wildlife potentially affected by the mill, and setting sustainable boundaries for the mill’s location.
- An independent panel, drawn from national and international environmental experts, to oversee the design, implementation and monitoring of the pulp mill.
- An independent inspector, appointed by the federal government, to monitor Gunn’s compliance with all the conditions outlined in the EPBC Act.
In response, Gunn’s has agreed to the 48 conditions, stating that they are the most ‘stringent in the world’. The federal Labor Party, which supported the mill’s initial approval (despite calling the process ‘shambolic’), has also welcomed the conditions saying that the former federal government set the bar too low with its original assessment. Now in power, both in Tasmanian and federally, the ALP has a huge responsibility to ensure its role as regulator is uncompromised—the unique and special wilderness area of the Tamar Valley and the future of our environment depend on it.
How do I know this?
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2007, ‘Government gives green light to pulp mill’, ABC, 4 October,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/04/2050653.htm
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF),
www.acfonline.org.au/
Australian Greens,
www.greens.org.au/TasmanianPulpMill
Australian Labor party
http://www.alp.org.au/media/1007/dsiCCenh040.php
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts 2007, ‘Turnbull imposes world’s toughest pulp mill conditions’, Canberra, Australian Government,
http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/notices/
assessments/2007/3385/decision.html
Forest Enterprises Australia Ltd (FEA),
www.fealtd.com.au
Gunns Limited,
www.gunns.com.au/
Maitland Mercury 2007, ‘Greens urge Rudd to stop Tasmanian pulp mill’, Fairfax Ltd, 17 December,
http://maitland.yourguide.com.au/news/national/general/greens-urge-rudd-to-stop-tas-pulp-mill/1144430.html
Mercury 2007, ‘Pulp mill victory’, Mercury, 30 August,
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22332526-921,00.html
Tasmanians Against the Pulp mill (TAP),
www.tapvision.info/
The Wilderness Society, Australia,
www.wilderness.org.au/
