Some of the issues around Gunn's proposed Tasmanian pulp mill in the Tamar Valley are discussed over at public opinion. The pulp mill is a project of State significance, yet as a private-sector development, it is a marginal operation, that will come to rely more and more on government subsidy. Already the project has benefited from direct and indirect federal and state government financial support just to get to the planning stage.


Ray Norman, Cut the Crap, 2007

A core issue is the potential effects of pollution as the pulp mill would flush high levels of dioxin into Bass Strait. Dioxins are among the most poisonous and persistent chemicals known----'they are known as persistent organic pollutants' or POPs. Gunns have repeatedly dismissed the possibility of dioxin pollution as non-existent---even less than in red wine!

However, even Gunns says that dioxins will be a part of the mill waste. Dioxins don't disappear, degrade or change; they're persistent and poisonous, they don't go away. Jon Sumby at tasmedia! says:

Dioxins don't like water and tend to stick to particles in the wastewater, so they usually fall to the seabed near the waste pipe. Then they get eaten by animals that live on the seabed, then by other fish and so on, up the food chain. There is a large body of research that shows this process. Dioxins are poisonous and persistent, they will accumulate no matter the amount of dioxin the pulp mill releases.

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