The environment watchdog is trying to find out where hazardous asbestos pipes have been taken after they were removed last month from a field in Naxxar.

Their removal followed enforcement action by the Planning Authority that had been pending for 10 years and came just after Times of Malta reported the situation.

The Environment and Resources Authority now wants to determine where the old pipes have ended up.

The field had been used to dump scrap but residents in the area were concerned about the potential danger to their health, especially as several months had passed since they flagged it to the authorities.

Asbestos, which is carcinogenic, can become brittle and the particles airborne, which means they can be ingested.

Within a couple of days of the report carried in Times of Malta, the pipes were gone.

A spokesman for the Planning Authority said they had been removed by the owner of the field but directed questions to the ERA for information about their current whereabouts. 

A spokesman for ERA, in turn, said the authority was “investigating the case in connection with the disposal of the pipes”.

Sources said the Planning Authority had issued a call for quotations for removal of the pipes when it had first received Times of Malta’s questions. However, no supplier was booked to do the job.

The PA spokesman explained that the “contravener” had been instructed to abide by the enforcement notice instructions and it was he who had cleared the site from illegal material. “The issue of who was contracted to remove the asbestos pipes falls under the competence of ERA,” he said when asked who had removed them and where they had been taken.

A spokesman for ERA said it was investigating where the pipes had been taken, the circumstances that led to their relocation and their composition.

He explained that ERA had received the report through the Naxxar local council in January and following its investigations, it had referred the matter to the PA because of the pending enforcement notice and also because the site is within a development zone, thus falling under that authority’s responsibility.

The large, derelict site in Triq Dun Ġorġ Fiteni, measuring more than 1,000 square metres, has been subject to a planning authority enforcement notice since 2009.

Contacted on Thursday, Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami said she hoped ERA would get to the bottom of where the pipes had been taken.