Tasmanian Greens (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia), August 27, 2007

SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS DISAGREE OVER PAPER MILL EFFLUENTS

[Rachel's introduction: In Australia, a member of parliament says approving a paper mill before completing research on its effluents would violate the precautionary principle.]

By Peg Putt, Member of the House of Assembly

The Tasmanian Greens today said the key matter of 'critical non- compliance' still remains that led the Resource Planning Development Commission to determine it was unable to proceed with the pulp mill assessment, and that neither the Tasmanian Parliament nor the Federal Environment Minister should give approval until certainty on where effluent will end up is established.

Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MHA [Member of the House of Assembly] said that the failure to provide comprehensive and accurate hydro-dynamic modelling thus far was noted in last week's Turnbull announcement and in the Tasmanian proposed Pulp Mill Permit, both of which ask for further modelling to be completed subsequent to an approval, timing the Greens say is unacceptable for its abandonment of the precautionary principle.

Ms Putt outlined that ex-CSIRO scientific expert Stuart Godfrey had shown that effluent was likely to end up washing back onto the coast and into the Tamar, and that this had been confirmed in the BMT WBM report subsequently prepared for Turnbull to review the Godfrey paper.[1]

The Greens also pointed out that the Pulp Mill Permit before Parliament indicates that the mixing zone for effluent may well change in the light of better modelling[2].

"Parliament is set to consider approval for the pulp mill despite strong scientific evidence that the toxic effluent will wash back onto the coast and may even go back into the Tamar, yet the ludicrous proposition is that Gunns come up with further hydro-dynamic modelling after approval in the hopes that they can somehow demonstrate that the effluent will disperse as they want it to," Ms Putt said.

"This continued failure to come up with hydro-dynamic modelling to the required standard was the "critical non-compliance" that the RPDC could not get Gunns to overcome, and which set off the chain of events that resulted in the project being pulled from the RPDC and landing up as a Parliamentary fast-track instead."

"If it wasn't good enough for Gunns to get any approval without supplying this vital modelling first so that there would be some certainty about where this toxic effluent could end up, then it's not good enough for the Tasmanian Parliament or Malcolm Turnbull to say yes to the mill and get the studies later."

"The potential for an environmental debacle is far too high and we should take the precautionary approach of doing the science first so that we know just what is being approved and whether it can be satisfactorily regulated."

"It is highly likely that the reality simply cannot be made to conform to the imagined effluent dispersal scenario painted by Gunns and that's why this is such a crucial stumbling block."

"The Pulp Mill Permit makes it clear that the mixing zone for effluent may change, as may the area beyond which water quality objectives may be able to be achieved, and that background concentrations of effluent may also change."

"The proposition that the pulp mill be approved with this huge problem about effluent acknowledged and unresolved is like giving a student a pass even though they didn't hand in their homework."

"Gunns' persistent failure to come up with the work may well indicate that they simply cannot prove their case for acceptable effluent dispersal."

NOTE: The BMT WBM Report is attachment No. 7.4 of the Federal Environment Department's recommendation Report, and can be found on the Federal Department of the Environment website.

[1] BMT WBM Report: Review of Godfrey paper, Prepared for the Federal Department of Environment and Water Resources, 16 August 2007.

[2] Tasmanian Government, Pulp Mill Permit Appendix 2A Schedule EM1, 21 August 2007, pages 14 and 15.

Related Links

Campaign -- Don't Pulp Our Future

Peg Putt, MHA: greens@parliament.tas.gov.au