Opposition environment spokes-man Leo Brincat asked the government to say how many times the Falzon Group had been caught with smuggled diesel and fuel in the past four years and what steps had been taken by the authorities.
He also asked where the government was getting its fuel requirements – such as stored fuel oil – following the stop notice issued last month to the Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering Co. Ltd, MOBC.
The planning authority in April ordered MOBC to stop loading and unloading fuel, given what it said was the unacceptable air pollution from oil berthing facilities.
The authority wanted MOBC’s management to rectify the situation and install the required mitigation measures. It was also instructed to stop carrying out loading and unloading fuel from and to barges and tankers, any tank-to-tank transfers and the heating of tanks containing fuel.
Speaking during the adjournment, Mr Brincat said he agreed with the decision to stop MOBC operating until it conformed to environmental rules and submitted an action plan on how to limit emissions in a predetermined timeframe.
But he questioned whether the same restrictions had also been brought to bear on other operators in the area, including Falzon Waste Oils, which, in recent years, had been at the centre of various controversies, especially in the Menqa area.
Mr Brincat said that on Monday, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had boasted it had taken all necessary steps to ensure all operators in the area were observing the rules.
Many could still remember how the Water Services Corporation had refused to proceed against Falzon Waste Oils in spite of a letter from Mepa’s Director for the Environment, dated April 6, 2009, which said the company had been found to be illegally disposing of waste oils into public sewers through a hole in the ground of the toilet on the premises.
Even worse, the WSC had chosen to completely ignore Mepa’s specific recommendation of legal steps against the company, which had been caught in breach of existing laws.
Mr Brincat said it was shameful that Mepa had offered the corporation its full support in evidence collected by the authority’s officials during their inspection, but Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco last week had confirmed in Parliament that WSC had never accepted Mepa’s offer.
A weekly paper reported on Sunday how WSC chief executive officer Marc Muscat said he had chosen to ignore Mepa’s advice because Falzon Waste Oils had regularised its position and had been found to be compliant in subsequent monitoring.
While admitting that the law was very clear that similar cases should be reported to the police for prosecution, the WSC preferred to ensure compliance rather than prosecute. Mr Muscat’s fallacious argument was that the corporation’s policy was to be educational in such matters. He had further said that, if found guilty, companies like Falzon Waste Oils would be fined a small amount but he would have wasted a lot of his employees’ time in court.
Mr Brincat said such an attitude would only encourage more breaches of the law with the government’s semi-official blessing.
Turning his attention to the decades-old problems of noxious fumes at Hexagon House in Marsa, he said it was obvious that, in spite of the time Dr de Marco had spent working there, the solution was still elusive. Although studies had been carried out and some preventive measures were expected, the workers did not yet have any guarantee the fumes problem would be definitely solved.
In a judicial protest on Monday, the workers had been threatened with pay cuts if they did not return to work at Hexagon House. It was unethical of Mepa to have publicised the judicial protest when neither the workers nor their trade union had yet received it. But the government, through Mepa, was not offering any solutions.
Mr Brincat said that although MOBC’s operations remained suspended, the fumes and smells were still being felt by both the workers and the residents of the area. If the government really had the environment at heart, it was expected to take the same firm steps with other private operators as it had done with MOBC. From information he had received up to May 13, senior environmental officials at Hexagon House were complaining that, despite the suspension of operations at MOBC, the stench was still unbearable.
Although the Prime Minister, on his visit to Marsa last Sunday, had linked everything to the eventual decommissioning of the Marsa power station, he had not mentioned that the problems of Hexagon House and Marsa were also the result of the handling and processing of oils.
The government must be proactive in making up for past shortcomings and regulating activities in the area in line with the EU’s stringent rules. In contrast, government quarters over the years had been complicit with certain operators, so much so that a Cabinet minister had shrugged off responsibility and asked what one could expect in an industrial zone.
He said a report by Emmanuel Sinagra, which had been circulated to Hexagon House workers, was not signed and could possibly be incomplete. Although it was technically sound, many aspects were conspicuous by their absence.
Mr Brincat said technical people had confirmed what Labour had long been saying, that the problem at Marsa was one of mercaptans. Although, under certain levels, these could have been considered as problematic, it would be good to know when the tests had been carried out and what wind was blowing at the time.
What the report had made clear was that longer-term sampling was needed for an exhaustive study that could determine the mix of concentrations of emissions. There was no correlation between the type of data used and the charts submitted to the workers. Neither were there sufficient data or adequate information on the permanent level of toxicity of the chemicals involved.
Mr Brincat said one could not stand by this study or hope that the problem would be effectively addressed. Mepa’s decisions seemed to be based on a study many held could have been more profound and professional.
The problem had caused the workforce to work from home for several weeks with serious health problems. Although Mepa and the government could be engaged in a damage limitation exercise and the problem could have been identified, it had certainly not been solved after decades.
He criticised the fact that when he had asked for a years-old report on a private impact assessment of Waste Oils Ltd to be tabled in Parliament, Dr de Marco had had to admit that they were looking for a copy of the report, and this when the original permit for the company was supposed to have been based on the report. One thing Mr Brincat could agree with in Dr Sinagra’s report was that if the sources of pollution were not addressed, any preventive changes at Hexagon House would be futile. This point had also been made repeatedly by the Department of Health. The government must be proactive in making up for past shortcomings and regulating activities in the area in line with the EU’s stringent rules.
Mr Brincat said that, in spite of environmental permits, the government was finding it extremely difficult to enforce monitoring effectively and efficiently. One wondered what would happen once the power station extension at Delimara came on stream.