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The Forum > Article Comments > Myth busting - the Gunns pulp mill > Comments

Myth busting - the Gunns pulp mill : Comments

By Alan Ashbarry, published 31/8/2007

The Gunns pulp mill - just what is fact and what is fiction?

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My misgiving concerns future diligence rather than the current political process. During the autumn forestry burnoffs I was starting to feel crook from two weeks of fine smoke inhalation. My email to the air quality monitoring agency was essentially fobbed off. Suppose organochlorines are found in the Bass Strait scallops; will there be the same bureaucratic buck passing? Under the philosophy of Lennonism if it means hindering forest biz the rules seem to be flexible. The Premier's blatant bias when he should be at arms length gives no reason to think anything will change.
Posted by Taswegian, Friday, 31 August 2007 10:46:24 AM
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Think about Taswegian inbreeding when you check the author's photo....same kind of moustache as the Premier.
Posted by Ponder, Friday, 31 August 2007 11:04:04 AM
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Billie,

You asked "why doesn't Tasmanian agriculture grow more hemp/cannabis/marijuana for paper production?".

Whilst I agree that hemp should be decriminalised and that it can be a valuable resource for fibre I don't think it is wise to use hemp plantations for fibre instead of timber plantations. Timber plantations offer great positive externalities that you don't get with hemp. A stand of trees that grows for 40 years before being harvested will provide habitat for a multitude of animals and plants. The same land with hemp harvested annually will not be as eco friedly. Timber can also generally be grown economically on terrain that is not suitable for annual cropping such as hemp would require. What we need in order to ecourage more plantation farming is sound and secure property rights and guarantees that production will not be confiscated or harvesting prohibitied in 40 years time.

Regards,
Terje.
Posted by Terje, Friday, 31 August 2007 12:31:23 PM
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Transcript with he who mistakenly considers his role as Premier "to grow the Tasmanian economy" above anything else...

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2019797.htm
Posted by Atom1, Friday, 31 August 2007 2:44:53 PM
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Alan,
re your remark that:

"These concerns over dispersion models ignore the fact there is already treated effluent from a Victorian pulp mill (also clean and green) being discharged into Bass Strait and that this effluent is rapidly diluted (PDF 286KB)."

According to the "Report prepared on behalf of NSG Consulting
[on]
Treatment and recycling options Bell Bay Pulp Mill Project
[by]
Department of Environment and Water
7 July, 2007 Job No. J072055",
http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/notices/assessments/2007/3385/pubs/att-b6.pdf

the proposed effluent will contain about 1 microgram per litre of cadmium and 1/4 microgram per litre of mercury. These are tiny levels until you begin to conseder the volume of water being released.

Your link to
http://www.tca.org.au/EFFLUENT%20DISPERSAL%20Bass%20strait%20only%20with%20comments.pdf shows an estimated 64,000 Tonnes of effluent being released each day, according to the marine impact assessment prepared for Gunns, Toxicos document TR101006-RJF, of 23 January, 2007.

The arithmetic allows us to estimate an average daily release of about 16 kg of mercury and 64 kg of cadmium, two heavy metals which accumulate in the food chain and affect the safety of marine fish as food.

All very well to say that no fish or seabirds will feed in the vicinity of the effluent outfall, but I have my doubts. And so should you.

The remarks above about dioxins in antarctic penguins demonstrate that simple models can fall short of adequate explanations - and predictions. Chemicals move in mysterious ways through food chains.

Alan, Can you tell me where How this mercury and cadmium come to be in the effluent stream?
Posted by Sir Vivor, Friday, 31 August 2007 6:54:46 PM
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I remember Gunns. Weren't they that Tasmanian group who loved Gods Creation so much that they dropped poison baits from helecopters to kill little possums and other little beings before the chain saws went and killed the old trees.
Posted by Gibo, Friday, 31 August 2007 7:13:42 PM
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