Delimara toxic waste transport will cost €12m a year
Charlot Zahra The cost of transportation and exportation of the hazardous waste that will be emitted from the Delimara Power Station’s extension running on heavy fuel oil (HFO), could reach as much as €12 million a year.
The plant will be generating 10,000 tonnes of toxic waste annually which will have to be stored for a short period of time then exported.
Labour MP Evarist Bartolo made this revelation during a public consultation meeting about the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the extension of the Delimara Power Station on Monday afternoon.
“In the EIA nobody has made a quantification of the total costs that the transportation and export of the toxic waste generated by the power station, which could reach €12 million annually,” Bartolo said.
During the hearing, Bartolo revealed that after persistent questioning by the Opposition in Parliament, the Government finally gave statistics showing that the victims of cancer were concentrated in the Inner Harbour Region – Floriana, Valletta. Sliema, Marsa and Paola.
“When I asked the consultant who is responsible for the cancer data as to the reasons behind the high incidence the disease in the area, and whether this was related to the Marsa power station’s emissions, I was told that there were not enough official studies, and therefore one should not speculate,” he insisted.
With all the controversy that has surrounded the awarding of the tender for the 100 MW extension of the Delimara Power Station to BWSC, the public discussion on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) promised to be a remarkable confrontation.
However, the location where the discussion was held – in a tent outside the Delimara Power Station itself, which is hardly the most accessible place in Malta, not even for journalists themselves, led to a poor attendance for the three-hour discussion.
Another decision taken by Enemalta to discuss the EIA later on Monday with environmental NGOs, which are often the most vociferous in their criticism of the project, led to a rather bland meeting, save for the constant hammering by the Ing. Arthur Ciantar, Marsaxlokk Local Council’s consultant, and Marsaxlokk Mayor Edric Micallef, with various pointed questions about the contents of the EIA.
Micallef requested for the waste to be transported via sea rather than via land, to avoid transportation through residential areas, and for the setting-up of a monitoring station at Marsaxlokk.
On his part, MEPA Environment Director Martin Seychell, who chaired the consultation meeting, was sceptical about this second request.
“However if you want to install it here, you have the power to do so!,” retorted Micallef. On his part, Seychell answered: “Everything is possible.”
Paediatrician Patrick Zahra also voiced his opposition to the extension of the Delimara Power Station. “At least today it is not spewing fumes”, he said sarcastically, referring to the lack of noxious fumes billowing out of the power station during the public consultation meeting.
He showed the public consultation meeting a picture of the Delimara Power Station while emitting fumes. Zahra explained how a study conducted by a medical professional on the impact of fumes billowing from the Marsa Power Station showed that there was a larger prevalence of lung cancer in the localities surrounding it.
More pointed was perhaps Labour MP Leo Brincat, who insisted that MEPA was focusing too much on the noise element of the project, while ignoring completely the health aspect of the project.
“This might have been deliberate, this might have not been –but it seems that health problems caused by toxins, including those coming out of the power stations, are being downplayed,” he told the gathering.
Brincat also called for a deeper analysis of the health impact of the proposed power station extension.
He revealed that when a foreign diplomatic mission asked question to the EPD on the Marsa incinerator, the mission was told off.
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