The Environment Resources Authority (ERA) has fined a developer €25,000 for chopping down trees in an old disused quarry slated for ‘rehabilitation’.

The sheared sides of the historical quarry on the outskirts of Għargħur had been weathered to the colour of natural rock and a straggle of trees grew within. Google Earth imagery showed at least one cultivated field. 

The developer, Tal-Magħtab Construction Co Ltd, obtained a ‘non executable’ permit from the Planning Authority last January in response to an application to dump demolition rubble and excavated earth into the quarry and then reinstate the fields on top.

The PA permit was conditional on the developer procuring a Nature Permit to transplant the trees as well as a separate Environment Permit from the Environment and Resources Authority. The PA’s case officer report specified that the trees should be transplanted at a “designated site for temporary planting” until eventual transplanting back on site once the soil was reinstated on the quarry topped with construction rubble.

However, Mario Schembri, chief of the enforcement directorate at the ERA, told The Sunday Times of Malta that the developer did not apply for the ERA permit.

“They chopped down the trees and started working,” he said.

This led to the issuance of the €25,000 ‘administrative fine’ on May 4. The developer appealed the decision and carried on with works.

For the residents, it was the disturbance that rankled: “We received many complaints particularly about vibrations that the works were causing,” Għargħur’s mayor, Ġiljan Aquilina, said when contacted.

“We initially reported to the ERA months ago; we want the ERA to ensure that works are carried out using appropriate machinery.”

“The sound of the machinery was really jarring and unsettling,” said one of the residents, Tania Farrugia. “The crushing of rocks and other works at times caused the block of flats to vibrate.”

Ms Farrugia, one of the more active residents of a nearby block of flats, runs a Facebook group for residents that was abuzz in recent months with talk and videos of the quarry woes.

By the time the ERA eventually stopped the works completely, on September 28, much of the quarry – which had previously blended with the countryside – was already filled with construction rubble.

The quarry did not appear to need ‘rehabilitation’ – its sides had already been weathered to the texture and colour of natural cliff, fields have long been laid within and a scatter of grown trees had taken hold. But the surge in reconstruction and excavations in the past few years has been generating amounts of rubble greater than the current lot of recently defunct quarries can absorb.

This was alluded to in the PA’s case officer report into the “rehabilitation” of the quarry: “The proposed backfilling of construction and demolition waste within such a quarry is nowadays considered of utmost importance particularly in view of the restricted space available but also more important to reach the targets stipulated in the Waste Management Plan for the Maltese Islands 2014–2020.” 

One of the objectives of the Waste Management Plan is to ‘recover’ 70 per cent of “construction and demolition waste” by 2020. Recovery is defined as backfilling spent quarries as well as recycling of construction rubble. 

Following the order to cease work, the developer submitted an application for an Environmental Permit to the ERA last Thursday.

Asked if rock crushing would be allowed on site in view of the residents’ complaints, the chief of the directorate that processes permits, Michelle Piccinino, wrote in an e-mail: “Although the proposal is limited to removal of soil, deposit of construction waste and reinstatement of the soil back on site, there are indications that crushing is also being contemplated as part of the operations. The Authority will review this application as per procedure, and the crushing of material may be considered subject to conditions.”

The PA’s case documents, before and after the issuance of a ‘non executable’ permit, both mention the possibility of crushing of rocks on site by a mobile crusher.

In reply to whether the ERA can reject the application, Ms Piccinino wrote: “Yes, ERA may refuse an application for an Environmental Permit, in which case the refusal is referred to ERA’s Enforcement Directorate for monitoring and any action deemed necessary.”

Mr Schembri said that 16 days after the order to stop works was issued, the developer will start incurring daily fines of €15 that would gradually rise to €150, and then cease once a permit is issued.  

Tal-Magħtab Construction Co Ltd boasts on its website of being one of Malta’s “leading” developers with a portfolio of projects including the American University of Malta in Cospicua. The company did not reply to an e-mail asking for comment.  

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