George Town municipality rate payers can now vote on four questions on the pulp mill elector poll. TAP recommends the following guide to voting.
Question 1 A - the approval process - Vote NO
We were told that the mill had to be fast tracked through Parliament for commercial reasons. But project finance has not been secured, the required studies are not complete, final federal approvals have not been given and construction is at least 6 months away.
Paul Lennon’s pulp mill fast track process was designed to avoid proper scrutiny by the people and was a sham.
Question 1 B - the type of pulp manufacture process - Vote NO
The proposed process will use chemicals containing chlorine and produce wastes such as chlorate and dioxin.
Chlorates are used by gardeners as weedkillers and have caused problems at other mills. The Commonwealth chief scientist’s report says this about chlorates in Tasmanian waters:
"The Department concludes that there is a potential contaminant problem through elevated concentration levels (of chlorate) around the effluent outfall, as well as the Tasmanian coastline. If the Tasmanian coastline is exposed to high chlorate concentrations, then the local algal habitat could be adversely affected". (Paragraph 57)
Professor Andrew Wadsley said “the likely impact of dioxin on the Tasmanian coastal and Commonwealth marine environments will be sufficient to pose a significant risk to marine life, to commercial and recreational fisheries, and to human health” (letter to Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Water Resources).
A totally chlorine-free mill avoids these problems.
Question 1 C - location in the Tamar Valley - Vote NO
The plan is to put one of the largest chemical mills of its type in a valley that is home to 100 000 people.
Every kraft pulp mill ever built has a smell problem even with all the latest anti-odour equipment. Sweco Pic boss Rune Franzen admitted it would smell (Examiner 22 August 2007). Fugitive emissions from thousands of pipe seals and pumps will be ongoing.
The smell from the sulfur compounds is like rotting cabbage, rotten eggs and a bad septic tank. It causes nausea and vomiting particularly in children.
The latest kraft mill built in Australia, at Tumut NSW, had serious odour problems for 5 years after it opened in 2001. The smell spread for 30kms. But the Tumut mill is only one fifth the size of the proposed mill.
Weather records show that for one day in five, the wind will blow the smell over George Town. Smells will be trapped in winter inversions that affect the whole valley.
Question 2 - the mill will have a net adverse social, economic and environmental impact - Vote YES
We have been told only of the benefits, not the risks and costs. Economists from the Tasmanian Roundtable for Sustainable Industries (www.lec.org.au) has estimated some of the costs and subsidies over the life of the pulp mill including:
* taxpayer subsidies of $850 million to the mill that could have been used for hospitals and schools;
* respiratory disease caused by the emissions from the proposed mill costing $350 million. Already a third of all cancer cases treated in Launceston are from the small population of George Town;
* dioxin contamination of Tasmania’s fish stocks by mill effluent, costing the fishing industry $690 million and 700 job losses;
* losses to Tasmania’s tourist industry costing the state economy $1.1 billion and 1044 jobs.
In addition, the George Town Council reports that the mill will worsen problems of community safety and traffic management from greatly increased road traffic (Special Council Meeting 26 July 2007, pp 68-70).
