Tasmanian clean green businesses trapped in foul gas zone from Gunns' planned pulp mill

Updated and revised 26 May 2009, with new foul gas zone boundaries and downloadable pdf.

 

Fugitive odours from pulp mills

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’!
 
Foul gas is a toxic, highly flammable mixture of:

  • methyl mercaptan (one of the most offensive smelling gases known to science with an odour likened to a mix of stale sewage and rotting cabbage);
  • hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg gas);
  • dimethyl sulfide (a liquid that smells like rotting seaweed or burning rubber, depending on the vapour concentration and boils at 63 degrees - very volatile); and
  • dimethyl disulfide (a liquid that smells like burning rubber and boils at 98 degrees).


While almost all of this foul gas is collected and burned in modern mills in a 3-tier odour control system, the gas must pass through many kilometres of pipe work before being burnt. The thousands of seals that join pipes gradually become saturated with the foul gas.  It then passes through the seals into the air in sufficient quantity to surround ALL KRAFT PULP MILLS with fugitive odours, even the most modern ones. The offensive fugitive odours causes nausea and headaches in most people exposed to it for long periods.

The Stendahl kraft mill in Germany, half the size of Gunns’ proposal, was trumpeted as 'odour- free' for 12 months after starting up, but by 18 months it developed odour problems and angry neighbours.

Science has no solution to the problem of fugitive odours and none is likely within the foreseeable future. What is more, the offensive odour becomes worse as the mill grows older and pipe seals inevitably degrade - particularly in the hands of companies with poor records of engineering maintenance and no experience in the technology.

Dr Warwick Raverty said, “Gunns' management arrogantly refused to respond to repeated questions from the RPDC about fugitive odours, simply claiming 'there will be no smell from the mill' - a world first by the least experienced pulping company in the world.”

“Despite his grandiose claims, Gunns' project manager flatly refused to give the RPDC a written guarantee that the mill would not smell,” he continued.

What does this mean for everyone living in the 110k wide foul gas zone?
All of the businesses on the map above are at risk. So is the quality of life of every person living within the RPDC’s designated 110k wide "regional airshed' (shaded on the maps below).

 

1. Locations of 77 Tasmanian vineyards and producers of fine food at risk from fugitive odours that will leak from Gunns’ planned pulp mill.

 

Fine food and wine producers at risk from pulp mill

Go online to google maps for the latest list of vineyards and fine food producers at risk or download the "Tamar Valley businesses at risk from fugitive odours from Gunns pulp mill v006.pdf" from below.

 

2. Tourism related businesses in the Tamar Valley at risk from fugitive odours that will leak from Gunns’ planned pulp mill.

Some 2600 tourism related businesses in Launceston and Tamar Valley provide mainly food and wine experiences and nature based activities (Tourism Research Australia, 2007).

Will tourists come to Tasmania to experience foul odours whilst choosing a bottle of vintage wine or tasting the cheese or kicking back to enjoy the holiday? Noxious foul smelling fugitive odours from Gunns planned pulp mill threaten up to $2.1billion and 2088 jobs lost in tourism alone (Business Roundtable report www.lec.org.au)

 

Tourism businesses at risk

 

Go to google maps for the latest map of tourism businesses at risk or download the "Tamar Valley businesses at risk from fugitive odours from Gunns pulp milll v006.pdf" from below.

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