Gilly Flower

Readers of Chausiku's blog may have already read the following, as it's the (rather long) comment I've just posted in response to the excellent piece she's written about the pulp mill at Fray Bentos. With a few more bits added.

Given they're not really to be found on every street corner, it's interesting that pulp mills are quite a feature in these blogs. But where the Uruguyan sounds good, the monolith we're up against is an example of the very, very bad.

"I can hardly let this one by without commenting can I, given the fight we have here in Tassie about a pulp mill.

I found this very interesting Paola, and thanks for going into such detail. You don't say, but I suspect this mill is actually the model that was initially sold to us: chlorine-free, and closed loop, which *is* as clean & non-polluting a pulp mill as you can get."

They still stink though. All pulp mills stink. And while I've no idea if fogs and mists are a regular weather feature there, they are certainly associated with pulp mills. The thick fogs due to emissions are one of the many reasons people here are so opposed. Due to our particular geological characteristic we already struggle with a thick blanket of cloud & fog at certain times of the year (winter mostly). This would be exacerbated to such a degree by fine particle pulp mill emissions it would be impossible to see. Road accidents & fatalities would increase several-fold. It happened in USA, where a mill was built in an area similar to the Tamar Valley, & within weeks of opening there was a 15-car pile up.

The mill has since been closed.

"Clearly there are plenty of checks & balances on potential damage to the environment at Fray Bentos. Sadly we cannot rely on Gunns, or the current state govt, to be so vigilant.

But the devious, shonky and unethical company that we are battling (ie Gunns Ltd) isn't going to build that model here in the Tamar Valley at all. Hence the scale of opposition.

Even the pulp & paper expert, with over 20 years experience in the industry, has said on several occasions he wouldn't support a pulp mill built by this company - no matter where they wanted to build it.
However, you may find your blog being checked out by all manner of folk, as (with your permission of course!) I'm going to forward the link to a few people."

Apologies if this seemed like a rant. I guess our experience here is the other side of the coin.