A Marsaxlokk resident yesterday filed a judicial protest against the Environmental and Resources Authority (ERA) ahead of tomorrow’s final decision on applications for permits for the LNG power station.

The judicial protest was filed against ERA, the authority’s chairman Professor Victor Axiak and the authority’s board members by engineer Arthur Ciantar, assisted by PN President of the Executive and maritime lawyer Ann Fenech. She presented the protest yesterday afternoon at the Law Courts.

Mr Ciantar is complaining that the authority published a 70-page document replying to the concerns expressed by all stakeholders involved, leaving residents with no more than four days to look into these replies before the final consultation meeting, which will be held tomorrow.

It also refers to the fact that the public was only given 30 days, later extended by another 10, to evaluate the 15,000-page report issued by ERA after the LNG tanker arrived in Malta. 

Mr Ciantar had asked a number of technical questions during the first consultation meeting and Electrogas representatives had said that his queries would be addressed. However, as he explains in the protest, the replies were not published online before Thursday 15 December. He was also notified by email that his questions had been answered in the online publication.

“When trying to analyse the replies given by the authority, Mr Ciantar was unable to find concrete answers to his technical questions. The few answers provided were either insufficient or unsatisfactory.”

In the protest, Mr Ciantar also listed a number of questions on technical issues which he had originally presented to ERA. He makes particular reference to the Nautical Quantitative Risk Analysis where it states that “in the unlikely event of an accident, the number of fatalities is acceptable”. In this regard, Mr Ciantar had asked what was meant by the word “acceptable” and for specific details of the limited number of scenarios identified. None of the above questions were answered.

With reference to the Wave Climate Study, Mr Ciantar explains that according to the study, “the lack of available site measurements makes it impossible to properly deal with the anecdotal information and increase the reliability of the study”. This report was published on 18 December, when the jetty was already built.

“This is evidence that the sea conditions in Marsaxlokk can be much worse than previously indicated and the reports handed to ERA are defective.”

Echoing what Dr Fenech said in an interview on INDEPTH, The Malta Independent’s online programme, the protest also mentions that the jetty that protrudes into Marsaxlokk Bay to which the LNG tanker is moored, is still awaiting the necessary certification from the internationally certification authority Bureau Veritas.

The question of how the tanker will be taken out of the bay in the case of a strong storm remained unanswered, Mr Ciantar complained. Meanwhile, when asked about the External Emergency Plan, ERA said that “as it has been classified ‘Secret’, given that the information contained within it, if made public it would be a threat to national security”.

“All of this clearly shows that the necessary permits cannot be granted before these shortcomings are addressed.”

Concluding the protest, Mr Ciantar also said that should the project get the green light, the authorities will be held responsible for any damages incurred or injuries received.

The LNG power station has been a controversial political topic, which erupted into an acrimonious debate after the Labour government announced that Electrogas consortium would be responsible for its construction.

One of the most contentious topics is that the huge tanker is to serve as a floating storage unit (FSU). The government has said that the tanker is a greater part of its mission to produce cleaner energy, while the Nationalist Party says that it puts the lives of the people living in Marsaxlokk Bay at risk.

Electrogas had said that the Armada LNG Mediterrana underwent rigorous safety testing and trials before departing for Malta from its original berth in Singapore with armed guards accompanying the vessel throughout its journey as is standard protocol for most ocean going vessels as a mitigation measure against piracy in specific vulnerable areas. 

 

The government has kept insisting that the project is safe and has dismissed any claims that there had not been enough consultation with residents. 

In a statement issued after yesterday’s judicial protest against the Environment and Resources Authority, the government accused Nationalist Party Executive President Ann Fenech of attempting to undermine and hinder the authority’s consultation process.

That process, the government said, had been extended at the PN’s request in what it said was another attempt to halt the gas power station project.

The government said that the PN had been given a total of 40 days to formulate its feedback and as such, it was “disgusting that the Opposition was stooping to such levels, the likes of which the country has never seen before”. 

This, the government said, was the same party that was caught in the biggest corruption scandal related to the purchase of oil, subjected families to the highest electricity bills in Europe, and which had purchased a power station using the most polluting fuel available from the Yellow Pages. 

“For obvious reasons,” the government said, “the PN was also a party in government that never wanted to implement the conversion to gas.

 

“Today’s act of irresponsibility confirms that the PN is only interested in its own partisan aims. On the contrary, this government will continue working so the country can benefit from the conversion to gas from heavy fuel oil so that utility tariffs can be reduced and be sustainable for the benefit of Maltese families and businesses.”