Sep. 16th, 2006
Gunns Green Pulp Mill
Sep. 16th, 2006 06:55 pmGunn's proposed pulp mill - the world's greenest pulp mill (because they're going to paint it green).
The timber to feed the mill will come from native forests or plantations.
Is it necessary to even mention why clearfelling of our native forests is a bad practice?
Plantations seem a benign enough solution, except to establish them means loss of either native forest or farming land (and the surround community), following by bating with 1010 poison & aerial spraying, which contaminates surrounding land & water catchment area.
The mill will use chlorine bleaching. Again, is there any need to mention why this is a bad practice?
The liquid wastes will be pumped in the Tamar River & Bass Strait, threatening the marine environment, including seals & penguins, the fishing industry & tourism.
Seal near the proposed pulp-mill effluent pipeline location; Photo Jon Bryan
Emissions from the mill through the will include such lovelies as hydrogen sulphide. The Tamar Valley, being a valley with the usual inversion layer, has a smog problem in winter. Bad enough, that the Launceston council brought in a scheme to "buy back" wood heaters to encourage residents to replace their wood heaters. Now, they want to add more pollution into that air?
From http://www.wilderness.org.au "The proposed pulp mill will consume up to a massive 26 billion litres of water each year. The current annual usage of water in the Launceston City, George Town, West Tamar and Meander Valley Council areas, including industrial customers, is 15 billion litres. The north-east water catchments, including the Tamar, are already under huge pressure from plantation establishment, and water restrictions are becoming more common."
Not to mention the smell, lowering property values, more log trucks on the road and so on.
And the benefits are...
To create more jobs? If jobs are their big concern, why aren't they looking at saw mills? Timber veneers? Furniture & craft wood? This employs more people and produces a more valuable product, yet isn't as detrimental to the environment & community.
So Gunns' shareholders will make more money?
I found this interesting. It's a transcript from the ABC's 7.30 Report
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1721430.htm
The timber to feed the mill will come from native forests or plantations.
Is it necessary to even mention why clearfelling of our native forests is a bad practice?
Plantations seem a benign enough solution, except to establish them means loss of either native forest or farming land (and the surround community), following by bating with 1010 poison & aerial spraying, which contaminates surrounding land & water catchment area.
The mill will use chlorine bleaching. Again, is there any need to mention why this is a bad practice?
The liquid wastes will be pumped in the Tamar River & Bass Strait, threatening the marine environment, including seals & penguins, the fishing industry & tourism.
Seal near the proposed pulp-mill effluent pipeline location; Photo Jon Bryan
Emissions from the mill through the will include such lovelies as hydrogen sulphide. The Tamar Valley, being a valley with the usual inversion layer, has a smog problem in winter. Bad enough, that the Launceston council brought in a scheme to "buy back" wood heaters to encourage residents to replace their wood heaters. Now, they want to add more pollution into that air?
From http://www.wilderness.org.au "The proposed pulp mill will consume up to a massive 26 billion litres of water each year. The current annual usage of water in the Launceston City, George Town, West Tamar and Meander Valley Council areas, including industrial customers, is 15 billion litres. The north-east water catchments, including the Tamar, are already under huge pressure from plantation establishment, and water restrictions are becoming more common."
Not to mention the smell, lowering property values, more log trucks on the road and so on.
And the benefits are...
To create more jobs? If jobs are their big concern, why aren't they looking at saw mills? Timber veneers? Furniture & craft wood? This employs more people and produces a more valuable product, yet isn't as detrimental to the environment & community.
So Gunns' shareholders will make more money?
I found this interesting. It's a transcript from the ABC's 7.30 Report
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1721430.htm