The proposed $2 billion pulp mill in northern Tasmania has edged closer – despite the project failing to meet all the state environmental guidelines.
Tasmania's Premier Paul Lennon today welcomed two key government commissioned reports on the environmental and economic impacts of the project.
The Gunns Ltd development earmarked for the Tamar Valley, north of Launceston, has met 92 of the state's 100 emission limit requirements.
Swedish consultant Sweco Pic said of the eight outstanding requirements, six can be addressed through permits, with the remaining two not considered significant.
Mr Lennon said Sweco Pic has recommended 21 conditions for air, water and waste management.
These include revised nitrous oxide limits, implementing a comprehensive management plan for accidental discharges, toxicity testing on effluent, further detail on waste reuse, monitoring total reduced sulphur emissions and revised hydrodynamic modelling (predicting the behaviour of effluent into Bass Strait).
Mr Lennon said the project has now been given the thumbs-up by scientists that would provide economic and environmental security for Tasmania.
"They (the reports) provide the reassurance that we can have a world class pulp mill and all the benefits it would bring without ruining the very things that makes Tasmania special."
Mr Lennon said he wanted to end the "lunacy" of exporting raw timber products from the state and instead see them processed in Tasmania.
The premier introduced a pulp mill assessment bill in parliament when Gunns withdrew the proposal from the scrutiny of the independent Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) in March.
Gunns blamed delays and the absence of a definitive decision on the mill.
Politicians have to vote on the project by August 31, as specified in the fast-track legislation.
The Wilderness Society said the Sweco Pic report "has either fudged or avoided several key environmental impacts of the proposed mill".
"The impact of the pulp mill's appetite and waste products on Tasmania's forests, wildlife and water will be devastating," society spokesman Geoff Law said.
"Gunns' failure to carry out adequate modelling of the dispersal of effluents means that a particularly stagnant part of Bass Strait will be jeopardised by organo-chlorines from the mill."
The Tasmanian Greens said the proposal contained the same deficiencies that were set to scuttle its approval from the RPDC before Gunns withdrew from that process.
"The fix is in," Greens leader Peg Putt said.
"This is the stitch-up job we knew Paul Lennon was engineering to recommend approval of Gunns' pulp mill."
Meanwhile, the mill is currently at the centre of a court case in Hobart that could fatally delay the proposal.
The Wilderness Society and anti-mill business group, Investors for the Future of Tasmania, have legally challenged Gunns and Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the commonwealth's environmental assessment of the proposal.
Several witnesses gave evidence to the federal court today.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
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