Integrated Impact Statement – Fact sheets (PDF 962 KB)
Integrated Impact Statement – fact sheets update Sep (PDF 264 KB)
The Inconvenient Truth – Facts the Greens don't want Tasmanians to know about the Bell Bay Pulp Mill (PDF 524 KB)
We want to make the most of our natural renewable resources. We believe a pulp mill is needed to provide a commercially sustainable forest industry sector. Pulp is far more lucrative than woodchips. Shipping woodchips to Asia is not sustainable in the long term due to increasing competition from South America and the Pacific Region which don’t have the high costs associated with wages and regulations that we have in Tasmania. While woodchips fetch about $190 per BDMT (bone dried metric tonne) on the Asian market, pulp brings in about $820 per adt (air dried tonne). The fact that we send our woodchips to Asia rather than process them into pulp here means that most of the benefits from our plantation resource are going overseas. We want to keep the benefits here in Tasmania. It has been estimated that every household in Tasmanian would be better off by $ 870 if we produced pulp here. Australian governments (State and national) will receive almost $894 million in increased tax revenue between 2008 and 2030, some of which will be returned to Tasmania under the normal Commonwealth Grants Commission formula. There will be an additional $39 million annual expenditure by the construction workforce into the northern Tasmanian economy and a 15% increase on local property prices.
Having a state of the art facility here in Tasmania also provides the opportunity to bring unique skills to Tasmania. The mill would require advanced technological skills that require diploma level training. This provides an opportunity for people in the industry to up skill.
All the necessary State and Federal permits to construct and operate the mill have been approved.
A new company called Southern Star Corporation has been set up to build and operate the pulp mill. It is a private company with Gunns having a 51% equity share and the remaining 49% being made available for potential investors. The company will hold Gunns plantation estate, the Hampshire and Bell Bay woodchip mills, nursery and wood-fibre research laboratory as well as the proposed pulp mill project, making it a very attractive business proposition for investors. At a capital expenditure cost of $2.3 billion, the pulp mill proposal is the largest-ever investment by the private sector in Tasmania and the largest-ever investment within the forestry sector in Australia.
During construction the project will employ up to 3,400 people. Once the mill is operational, employment in Tasmania will increase by 1617 direct and indirect jobs. We expect that up to 80% of these workers can be found in Tasmania with only specialist professionals coming from the mainland and overseas. Approximately 300 technical roles will be required to run the pulp mill once it is built. These will be highly skilled positions requiring specialised, diploma level training which will be provided in Tasmania. Projections show that by 2030 there will be about 2,000 extra jobs in Tasmania because of the pulp mill.
At a capital expenditure cost of $1.4 billion, Gunns’ pulp mill proposal is the largest-ever investment by the private sector in Tasmania and the largest-A number of feasibility studies were conducted to select the best site for the pulp mill. The assessments looked at transport, water supply options, water supply pipeline, wharf facility, effluent pipeline, ocean outfall, possible workers’ accommodation facility, location and construction technology for a water supply pipeline crossing of the Tamar River and landfill. The Bell Bay industrial zone was selected as the best site because of a number of factors, including its proximity to the wood supply, the two existing woodchip mills, and its proximity to loading facilities at the ports, access to labour, environmental benefits and transport costs. The site is already zoned for heavy industry; it has an existing woodchip processing facility; and port facility and the required infrastructure, such as gas, power, road and rail, are accessible.
Hampshire was seriously considered as a potential site for the pulp mill during the feasibility studies. However, the main reason the Bell Bay Industrial Zone was chosen over Hampshire was transport. The Hampshire chip mill currently processes 1.2 million tonnes of wood per year. We would need to process 3 times that amount of wood to meet the needs of the pulp mill which would mean a lot more log trucks on the roads between Ridgley and Burnie. In addition, Hampshire is located about 35km inland from the Burnie port, preventing the development of an integrated port and pulp mill. The port facility is crucial as initially plantation wood will need to be shipped in from the mainland to supplement our plantation resource in Tasmania. Also it is anticipated that most of our pulp will go to overseas markets. Being able to ship the pulp directly from the pulp mill is the most cost effective and environmentally friendly option.
The mill has the most stringent, environmental conditions ever imposed on a pulp mill in the world. We have been continually monitoring air quality in the Bell Bay and Rowella areas for the past 3 years to give us a good understanding of what the air quality is like now (before the pulp mill is built). This means we have good data to assess if there are any changes to the air quality once the pulp mill is operating.
One of the myths that have grown up around the pulp mill is that it will make the air quality in Launceston worse. This is not the case. Air flows from Launceston to Bell Bay not the other way so Launceston residents do not need to be concerned about air particles coming into Launceston. Also residents in Rowella can be assured that prevailing winds provide good dispersion for any emissions. Emission levels will be the same as those currently emitted from the Bell Bay Power Station. The mills controls will capture 99.87% of particulates. Numerous studies have been carried out and any potential changes to our air quality will be minute – well below the limits set by the government.
The Chief Scientist of Australia, Dr Jim Peacock concluded:
“Operating in compliance with the stringent conditions applied, there is a very strong possibility that the Pulp Mill will operate with an environmentally neutral footprint.”
Environmental health expert, Dr Roger Drew, analysed potential effects on pulp mill workers and nearby residents and concluded that mill emissions are very unlikely to cause direct health effects, either alone or as a mixture. The analysis also found that mill emissions will have negligible incremental impact on existing health issues.
When operating at its full capacity, the required raw water supply for the pulp mill will be 26 gigalitres per year. The Bell Bay Pulp Mill will use approximately 1% of the water (26GL) that flows into Lake Trevallyn. No additional water is being taken from the Trevallyn water system and water levels at the dam remain the same. The flow to Cataract Gorge will not change. We will purchase the water needed for the pulp mill from Hydro Tasmania. We will pay a fair price for the water just like other users. The price will be based on market factors. The proposed pulp mill will uses the most modern technology available so we can use 70% less water than older design mills due to extra water being recycled. On average pulp mills consume 40,000 litres of fresh water per tonne of pulp produced. The Bell Bay Pulp Mill would use only 23,500 litres per tonne because of its recycling focus. This is a 40% saving – or 13.5 gigalitres per year.
The “effluent” is water that has washed the wood fibre. It will have no effect on the Tamar River as it is being discharged through a long pipe into Bass Strait. 99.7% of the effluent that is discharged into the Bass Strait is water; the rest is similar to the natural fibres that make up wood. Many pulp mills discharge pulp mill waste water into a river or a lake. For example, in Scandinavia pulp mills are often built around freshwater lakes that not only disperse the waste water from the mills but also supply the drinking water for local towns! However, the Tasmanian Government has stipulated that no effluent can be discharged into the Tamar River. Treated effluent will instead be piped 23km to Five Mile Bluff and discharged through a multi-port diffuser system at a depth of 26 metres, about 3km into Bass Strait.
There is a seal colony about 15km from the outfall site so we undertook a risk assessment of potential health risks to the seals. The results of these studies showed that there is a very low risk of bioaccumulation and biomagnification from the discharge of pulp mill effluent on the marine environment, including benthic invertebrates, fish and mammals.
The introduction of ECF and TCF bleaching processes between 1990 and 1993 has virtually eliminated the release of dioxins and furans. Dioxin formation in the discharged pulp mill effluent is calculated to be almost non-existent, undetectable and significantly below both the level of detectability and the emission guidelines limit.
The health risk assessment has identified that the pulp mill effluent will have a negligible impact on seafood and human health. The studies show there is little potential for the tainting of fish in the outfall area, fish will not accumulate metals into the muscle, there is a very low risk of bioaccumulation, the content of persistent organochlorins will be below detection limits and there will be no visible colour where the effluent is discharged.
The proposed pulp mill will use state of the art, world class technology to prevent any “smells”. Our mill will be the first in the world to have a 3-tier odour protection system which “burns” the odours. All 3 systems would have to break down at the same time in order for odour to be released. Our studies show that the statistical likelihood of odour limits being exceeded at the pulp mill site is once every 11 years!
The Pulp Mill will use proven, state-of-the-art technology that also provides the best possible environmental performance. Environmental and technological innovations will give the Pulp Mill a valuable advantage over existing mills and are expected to lead to efficiency and environmental sustainability benefits that will balance the investment cost.
The Pulp Mill will utilise a BAT (Best Available Technology), Elemental Chlorine Free bleaching process that is used in more than 90 per cent of the production of global market pulp and satisfies all relevant environmental guidelines, including those of the RPDC, United Nations Environment Program and the World Bank. The Bell Bay pulp mill is designed to comply with Australian regulations and international standards for modern mills including an Elemental Chlorine Free bleaching process which is a modern proven technology utilised by the vast majority of global pulp mills. Bleached Kraft pulp mills using ECF technology have evolved over recent years, with each one being technologically and environmentally better than the last.
The proposed pulp mill will, in the initial stages, produce about 820,000 air dried tonnes of pulp and will have the capacity to produce up to 1.1 million air dried tonnes of pulp for domestic and international markets.
Gunns Limited is more than happy to provide further information about our Integrated Impact Statement. Please feel free to access our website www.gunnspulpmill.com.au, send us an email pulpmill@gunns.com.au or telephone us on 1800 265 297. Gunns Limited representatives are also available to speak to your community groups
and clubs.