Gunns Ltd: 'Gunns Ltd is committed to environmental best practice and constructing the World's greenest pulp mill that will establish new global benchmarks of excellence.'
Gunns Ltd half-year shareholder update: 'Gunns Ltd is committed to building the World's best pulp mill from an environmental perspective.'
Comment: In these statements Gunns promises to build the very best possible pulp mill environmentally.
Gunns Ltd: ' A team of experts has visited leading mills in Asia, S.America, USA and Europe to hand-pick the the latest and cleanest technology.'
IIS: The mill will represent state of the art technology. The mill will be highly automated and efficient, with low maintainance costs and will be designed to comply with emission guidelines but the allowable NOx (nitrogen oxide) levels will need to be revised upwards because 1/.natural gas is being used 2/. the mill will pine as well as Eucalypt and 3/. a much larger power plant is being built.Comment: In part 1b of the IIS, Gunns justify their decision to use existing proven technology rather than the latest processes that are as yet, according to them, unproven. The newer technology may well result in better environmental outcomes but are untried on a large scale and may be unreliable.
The Beca AMEC peer review is critical of the proposed Chlorine Dioxide generation plant saying it increases the risks of an accident and it is not accepted modern technology (AMT). It also says that Gunns claims to have the best odour control is misleading (see odour section) and that the mill would need an extra four measures to make it the World's best.
Comment: Many mills in Europe are totally chlorine-free (TCF) - but it is disputed whether they can produce the top quality paper.
The NTDG study found that TCF and ECF mills in Sweden were environmentally equivalent.
Gunns Ltd: ' The Mill will have some of the lowest emissions
in terms of air and effluent of any operating bleached Kraft mill in the
World '
Comment: Gunns are back-tracking here a bit. Not the best - just one of the best.
Gunns proposal: 'The mill will discharge up to 30Gl per annum of treated effluent into the sea'
Comment: Closed loop mills do not discharge effluent into the sea, rivers or lakes. So the new mill will not have some of the lowest emissions in terms of effluent - closed-loop mills earn that accolade. Look at this link which shows that Totally Chlorine Free and very low effluent mills are certainly possible.
Proposal: ' Gunns' investigators have concluded that a completely closed cycle Kraft mill and even a closed bleach plant are not yet technically proven and economical viable technologies.'
Comment: Closed-loop mills are technically possible in terms of fluid effluent although they generate more solid waste instead. In fact there's one at Tumut NSW opened in 2001. Whether it's an economically viable technology we leave to the accountants! But Visy seem very happy with their new mill at Tumut.
Comment: The solid waste from Longreach will be spread into State forest. In Finland, effluent plant sludge is not permitted to go to landfill.
Gunns Ltd: ' An extensive environmental monitoring program will ensure a long term commitment to environmental excellence'.It was announced on June 9th 2006 that a $700 million pulp mill project at Heywood in SW Victoria has been given the green light. This pulp mill will be chlorine-free and zero discharge.
Here is a Hobart Mercury report on how local residents at Tumut regard their pulp mill (started up in 2001) now:
The Visy Pulp and Paper mill at Tumut - about one third the size of the proposed mill at Longreach:
Here is what can happen if things go wrong:
A brand new pulp mill in Chile
This company promised that World's best technology would be used to prevent pollution and odours. The result has been an environmental disaster and odours that spread for 70 kms.
West Tamar resident Bob McMahon heard about the disaster and flew there to see for himself. This is his report:
VERDICT: It looks as though the opponents might have the edge on this one. In fact, on the above evidence it will not even be Australia's greenest but just an ordinary Kraft pulp mill with the latest technical refinements although it will be painted green. The more environmentally friendly options such as the mills currently proposed for Victoria and S.Australia have been rejected here. These mills are smaller and do not produce the quality of woodpulp that the Longreach site will produce. It's about economics - This mill offers the best economic outcome for Gunns Ltd but produces large amounts of effluent. A smaller less polluting mill is possible but would not be so profitable. So it cannot be called the most environmentally friendly pulpmill in the World and we now know that the benchmark that the RPDC set was Stendal and that the Gunns proposal is a long way short of that. Opponents are saying that with the current water shortage and the lack of a suitable marine outfall (see section on effluent), the mill should be closed-loop. It should be noted that whilst Gunns rejects the very latest technology because it is not proven, it intends to use an unproven method of chemical manufacure of chemicals (which will save them money) which could, if it went wrong, result in dioxin contamination.