Il-Hofra z-Zghira faces imminent threat from power station
James Debono An additional 13,500 cubic metres of seawater, at a temperatures 8 degrees centigrade higher than normal, will be discharged every hour in Hofra iz-Zghira cove as a result of the Delimara power station extension – posing a threat to the idyllic bay’s already fragile eco system.
Two previous studies, conducted in 1996 and 2001, already attributed the marked regression of the protected sea-grass meadows (Poseidonia oceanica) meadows, and its replacement with algal assemblages in Hofra z-Zghira, to the discharge of water from the power station.
This process is expected to “aggravate” as the amount of warm water discharged into the sea is set to increase from 29,500 cubic meters to 43,000 cubic metres every hour, an Environmental Impact Study warns.
The increase in water temperature will disrupt the life cycle of fish by effecting their spawning and feeding behaviour and will result in a reduction in biodiversity.
It will also result in larger volumes of chlorine dioxide – a biocide which kills small organisms – which is added to the water before being discharged into the sea.
In their submissions to the EIA, Din l-Art Helwa called upon Enemalta to further study mitigation measures to reduce this negative impact without discarding them out of hand “for not being economically viable”.
The EIA considered a redesign of the outflow to dispose of this water in deeper waters, but this alternative was dismissed because ecological harm caused by trenching works were deemed to offset any benefits from reducing the thermal impact of the present outfall.
Finally the EIA recommended keeping the outfall in its present location in Hofra z-Zghira but only a number of mitigation measures are implemented by Enemalta.
One of the mitigation measures proposed is a greater control on the amount of biocide added to the effluent before it is discharged.
But the EIA concludes that “some residual impacts” like the regression of posedonia meadows and their replacement with algae, “will still inevitably result.”
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