Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/260953
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2014 11 European Commission was "ready to start infringement procedures" against member states with whom it is unable to reach agreement in ongoing bilateral consultations. The Maltese government will re- duce utility prices in two rounds by an average 25% for households in 2014, and for businesses in 2015. In fact while ambient air quality standards are regulated by the Am- bient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/ EC), emissions from the plant itself regulated by the Large Combustion Plants Directive (2001/80/EC). "These are two separate laws which do not regulate the same issues," the expert pointed out. "When the government changed the legal notice to accommodate the BWSC plant it did not change the EU's parameters on air quality standards." In fact the ambient air quality di- rective deals with the air that we breathe while the large combustion plants directive deals with the con- centration of pollutants in the waste gases from power and similar plants. "So basically while not delving into the issue of the large combus- tion plants directive, the report deals with the air the residents in the Mar- saxlokk and Birzebbugia area are breathing and concludes that it is unlikely that exceedances of the air quality standards in the area are due to the activity of the power plants and it is more likely that other sourc- es are the major drivers behind these exceedances." Is BWSC plant a cancer factory? According to Mallia, the original "cancer factory" remark made before the election and repeated this week in another form by Muscat simply does not make any sense as far as old Delimara Power Station – and to an even lesser degree, the BWSC power station – are concerned. "Cancers take a long time – over 10 years – to develop, except in cases of extreme levels of pollu- tion," Mallia said. According to Mallia, the old power station, with its very tall chimney, has not been around long enough. He added that this was pointed out to Joseph Muscat by medical expert Victor Calvagna, who had worked on the very differ- ent case of Marsa Power station. It is also difficult to trace particu- lar cases of cancer to specific sourc- es – again, except in really extreme cases like the Porto Marghera PVC plant, or the Acerra (Naples) incin- erator or the ILVA (Taranto) steel works. "The cigarette smoke-lung cancer connection took eight years of unremitting work before is was accepted by the medics." Moreover, according to Mallia, if Muscat is correct in his attribu- tion that the power station is still a cancer factory, "How come he has allowed Konrad Mizzi to ask for continued use of HFO in BWSC?" Back in 2012, the Labour Party had committed itself to switch BWSC to diesel as soon as he was elected, before the power station is converted to gas. Mallia believes that there is a solid technical reason why Labour cannot honour this promise. "That was another foolish proposal, as Konrad Mizzi has had occasion to find out." The reason why the conversion is not possible is that Malta lacks enough diesel storage to safely cov- er full running of BWSC on diesel. "Changing over HFO tanks to die- sel takes time. Before the Sicily ca- ble arrives, we would be running a risk of interruption of supply if we attempted the fuel change." The MEPA study A study by air quality experts from the University of the West of England, has confirmed that heavy fuel oil, the residue from crude oil refining that fires the diesel engines provided by BWSC, did not lead to an increase in particular matter from the new Delimara power sta- tion turbines. A study on atmospheric particu- lar matter (PM) 2.5 and 10 – the tiny pieces of solid or liquid matter that are smaller than 2.5 microm- eters, such as soot particles, or less than 10 micrometers – found no particular increase in emissions in a pre-2013 and post-2013 study on air quality in the most affected towns of Marsaxlokk and Birzeb- bugia, which live under the shadow of Delimara power station. Former finance minister Tonio Fenech now claims that Labour's pre-election claim that Delimara was "a cancer factory" was a false ac- cusation that vindicated the former administration's decision to run the new diesel turbines on HFO. Labour famously dubbed Delima- ra's new turbines a 'factory of can- cer'. Speaking during a special edition of programme Affari Taghna during the electoral campaign, Muscat said that removing polluting power sta- tions to safeguard the people's health was reason enough to go ahead with his party's plan. He added that he would also invite a child from Marsaxlokk to inau- gurate the removal of the Delimara power station's chimney. Muscat heard a grandmother of nine talk about relatives who died of cancer and a three-year-old grand- child who is sick with cancer. "My father died of cancer and eight of my nine grandchildren suffer from asthma. Each day is spent at health centers. And now, our three-year- old grandchild has been diagnosed with cancer," the woman from Mar- saxlokk said. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Muscat slips on emission rules PN candidate: Labour putting politics above residents' security Physicist Edward Mallia: "Cancers take a long time – over 10 years – to develop, except in cases of extreme levels of pollution" JURGEN BALZAN NATIONALIST MEP candidate Therese Comodini Cachia yester- day expressed her concerns over the government's decision to opt for a floating liquefied natural gas termi- nal anchored to a jetty in Delimara. She said the LNG tanker would ex- pose residents to environmental risk, disrupt jobs and family life, and im- pinge on their property rights. Plans to supply a new power plant at Delimara with LNG require that a floating terminal will be anchored permanently to a jetty. The social impact assessment on the 215MW gas plant and LNG storage terminal shows that the most disliked option is that of storing the gas in gigantic tanks located on land – originally Labour's energy plan, and derided by the Nationalist Party who claimed the tanks, 'as big as the Mosta church dome', were a potential safety hazard for Marsaxlokk. The land-based tanks have now been discarded due to safety reasons, but it was one of three options as- sessed in the EIA. The vast majority of residents in seaside localities Marsaxlokk and Birzebbugia said they prefer having the gas storage infrastructure located outside the Marsaxlokk harbour. Comodini Cachia, born and raised in Birzebbugia, said the government should uphold the rights of the resi- dents of Marsaxlokk and her home- town "if it truly believes in good gov- ernance and fairness". Noting that she was not opposed to the project, the MEP candidate she would do her utmost to ensure that the new plant and LNG termi- nal does not negatively impact on residents. "The government is doing what suits it best… prioritising its timescales and financial targets over residents' health." Comodini Cachia said the govern- ment was being "immature and irre- sponsible" in implementing a project for its political expedience, while ig- noring residents' security. Accompanied by engineer Stanley Zammit, the PN candidate posed a number of questions over what would happen in the eventuality of an incident such as the dispersion of a cold vapour cloud from the new gas power station. "Why is the ter- minal going to be anchored inside the bay while the regasification plant is on land? If the regasification proc- ess poses the biggest risks, why will it be situated adjacent to the power plant? Why won't the storage and re- gasification plants be on sea?" She questioned why no study on any potential incident was carried out and whether an incident would affect nearby plants, such as the Freeport. Stressing that this was a matter of national interest, Comodi- ni Cachia asked whether an incident would affect the country's energy supply. Mizzi: Brussels should not adopt one-size-fits-all on energy prices Government will reduce utility prices by an average of 25% in 2014 Konrad Mizzi Therese Comodini Cachia Visual illustrating the size of fine particulate matter