Enemed yesterday pledged to address the fuel seeping into the sea in Birzebbuga, which has been leaking through the rocks for a number of years.
The current fuel storage site, located on Sacred heart Promenade just across from the rocky beach, will stop being used by end of this year, Enemed said, explaining that a new project to dismantle the fuel tanks will kick off, after which the site will be decontaminates.
Enemed also confirmed that the tanks momentarily in use are not the cause of the fuel leakage, recalling how over the years there have been various oil leakage incidents, including one significant incident when a bomb went off near a tank and the oil was consequently dispersed.
During that incident, Enemed said, the Shell Company had only addressed the issue “in a temporary manner”.
At that time, Enemalta, after having consulted experts, had built a ‘Bio Slurping Plant’ in the Birzebbuga plant, in order for the fuel to be trapped in strategic places and for it to be easily recovered.
That structure, Enemed, Enemalta’s successor, said, was ready by 2001 and has been in use ever since.
“The liquid recovered mainly consists of water with very small oil particles, and very often it is only seawater. For some time, this issue was under control, however, lately, there have been oil leakages from different places, as the experts had previously forecasted.
As such, Enemed dug new boreholes for the oil to be trapped before it escapes into the sea, and a relative structure has been installed to reduce the spread of contamination.
The amount of oil leakage was heavily reduced and for long periods of time only water was being collected, Enemed said.
“This emphasises the fact that this problem has not emerged recently, but is an evident result of past incidents which were at that time addressed only for a temporary period only.”
Enemed reminded that the completion of the Has Saptan project, which is currently under construction, this will lead to the Birzebbuga plant’s closure by the end of the year.