11^th December 2009

Premier Keneally asked to demonstrate commitment to River Murray

Environmental and public water-rights advocacy group, Fair Water Use (Australia), has obtained a chart of the chemicals used during the production process at the Albury paper mill owned by Norwegian-based multi-national Norske Skog. The company is intending to expand the plant and insists that it will have no option other than to discharge “treated wastewater” directly into the River Murray.

The list includes agents such as Sulphuric acid, Phosphoric acid, Sodium hydroxide, Sodium hydrosulphite and Hydrogen peroxide, raising concerns that Norske Skog’s activities in Australia will have environmental impacts similar to those resulting from its widely-criticised New Zealand operations.

The recent statement by Wenche Ravlo, General Manager of Norske Skog's Albury paper mill, that the company "prides itself of its environmental performance", provides little reassurance for Australians concerned about the future of the Murray River.

Recent articles in the New Zealand press, "Black Drain" threat to food and exports  and Mill gets 25-year pollution consent, reveal the disastrous impacts that the operations of Norske Skog have had on the Tarawera River,  into which the company and its local partner, Owens Carter Holt Harvey, are allowed to discharge 150 megalitres of effluent every day from the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill.

The NSW Department of Water and Energy must withdraw its consent for Norske Skog to commence similar activities at its Albury mill on the banks of the struggling River Murray.

The “Norske Skog Green Offsets Project” recently announced by the NSW Department of Water & Energy raises serious concerns.

The project is an attempt to mitigate the effects of 1500 tonnes of salt which the Norwegian paper manufacturer is seeking permission to dump into the River Murray every year, enabling expansion of its paper-mill at Albury.