Here is the online copy of the first edition [Summer 09/2010] of TAP's newspaper. You can download a pdf of the four A3 sized pages at the bottom and print off copies.
Its purpose is to detail in newspaper format how the proposed pulp mill, the fourth-largest kraft pulp mill in the world, threatens the health, jobs, lifestyle and investments of the community.
On 6 July 2005, the Resource Planning and Development Commission wrote a confidential letter to John Gay of Gunns detailing two major concerns with the planned pulp mill. These were that:
Updated and revised 26 May 2009, with new foul gas zone boundaries and downloadable pdf.
Advice from Dr Warwick Raverty
Dr Raverty is a retired pulp and paper expert and former Assessment Panellist for the Tasmanian Resource Planning and Development Commission which was charged with the responsibility of examining Gunns’ proposal for a kraft pulp mill at Long Reach, Tamar Valley, Tasmania. He provided the following advice to TAP on 10 May 09.
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Fugitive odours (foul gas) from Gunns’ planned pulp mill will be detected in the air up to 55kms away eg Launceston, Deloraine, Longford and Bridport if it is built at Bell Bay. Foul gas causes nausea and headaches in most people exposed to it for long periods. It will impact on health, quality of life and businesses of everyone living within the 55km zone around Bell Bay.
All kraft pulp mills produce tens of tonnes of toxic gases per day that pulp mill managers refer to euphemistically as 'Non Condensable Gases', or NCG for short. In the same way that industry managers refer to 'outplacement' while workers call it ‘getting the sack’, pulp mill workers call NCG by its real name ‘foul gas’!
Operation Smokewatch is about the community recording incidents of fires and smoke around Tasmania. The information from members of the public will be used by the community group "Operation Smokewatch" to lobby the government to protect human health.
Smoke smell and visibility are good indicators of very small smoke particles (PM 2.5). These particles are small enough to penetrate far into the lungs and cause significant harm to your health.
A Better Australia and TAP conducted two workshops with approximately 120 members to plan strategies to stop the pulp mill.
Sorted outputs from TAP/ A Better Australia presentations on 21 Jan 2008
What concerns does audience have for the future?
Social issues
Unrealisable expectation
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.
Facts the Tasmanian Government and Gunns Ltd don’t want people to know about the proposed Tamar valley pulp mill, Tasmania, Australia. Timber company Gunns Ltd wants to build a ‘world scale’ pulp mill in the clean green Tamar valley. The proposal is planned to go ahead despite majority opposition from Tasmanians and Australians and massive risks to food production and fisheries, from air and water pollution, water shortages and release of carbon stores into the atmosphere.
The air in a valley
Launceston lies in the Tamar valley and is regularly subject to thermal inversions that trap particulates and smells. Gunns want to build the pulp mill in the Tamar valley.
Did you ever count how many times Paul Lennon says 'tough' when speaking about guidelines. Well this is what Lennon 'tough' talk means.
Warning! Planning Minister Kons says this is "misleading" too.
The expanding area of plantations intended to feed the proposed pulp mill, is already having a major impact on the state.
Water
