The local council and residents of Xewkija in Gozo have vowed to fight the government tooth and nail before they will allow a waste transfer station to be built in their locality.
Describing the plans as “a pure case of political vendetta”, “an attempt to divide the people of Ghajnsielem and Xewkija” and “in breach of the Development Planning Act”, the local council and the residents have even asked the Labour Party’s MEPs to intervene on their behalf.
At a public discussion on the matter on Friday evening, the council and its technical advisers presented convincing arguments why the waste transfer station should not be built in the Tal-Kus area, but more than that they questioned whether the project made sense in the first place.
Intervening, Labour MEP John Attard Montaldo said: “This is not a question of having a waste facility in Ghajnsielem or in Xewkija. We should be asking whether Gozo needs this project or not. And Gozo does not need it.”
Adding a little bit of political flavour, he insisted that a Labour government would remove the Waste Transfer Station, “the day after it is elected to government”.
The project, which has been approved by MEPA, will permit all waste in Gozo to leave the island soon after it is collected. The facility will be used to receive, sort and process waste, which will then be transported away from the site.
According to WasteServ, no biodegradable waste will be stored in the building for longer than 72 hours and the proposed facility will receive waste colleted by 18 trucks, nine skip loaders, 13 vehicles and five vans. The waste will then be loaded and sealed ready for transport.
At present, waste in Gozo is collected and taken to an area of the old landfill in Qortin. WasteServ insist that the waste transfer station will provide a sustainable and environment-friendly system of waste management.
But as far as the Xewkija local council is concerned, the only benefits they will get from the proposed station is a health hazard and a project that will have a negative impact on Mgarr ix-Xini, which is of ecological, archaeological, geomorphologic and cultural importance.
MEPA had scheduled the area for protection, including Tal-Kus, in 2001. It is even more ironic that the proposed site is right in the middle of a proposed regional park being developed by the local councils of Sannat and Xewkija.
In the absence of any government representative or officials from MEPA, Xewkija mayor Dr Monica Vella said the council had extended an invitation to the ministers responsible, officials from MEPA and WasteServ, but they all declined the invitation “because they had other commitments”.
Dr Vella said this was not the first time the council had been ignored by the authorities. For more than three years, since the Tal-Kus area was identified as one of the possible sites for the waste transfer station, the council had always been kept in the dark.
“The Tal-Kus area was not the original choice made by WasteServ. Ta’ Brieghren was the preferred site but when the residents of Ghajnsielem objected, the government ministers attending the public hearing promised that the site would not be in Ghajnsielem. It was a political decision. An alternative site had to be chosen and they chose Tal-Kus in Xewkija, even though studies show that it is not an ideal location,” Dr Vella argued.
The mayor claimed that the local council was never provided with information. “When we went to look up information on the project, we found that an application file did not exist. Instead, a general file was opened that is not available to the public.”
Dr Vella said the authorities has taken the council for a ride time and again, sending correspondence at the last minute to prevent the council from being able to prepare its case or to contact MEPA officials.
“When the DPA report was published, as objectors we should have received a copy at least 30 days before. However, this was only made available on M MEPA’s website less than 24 hours before the hearing. The council and its advisers barely had enough time to read the report,” Dr Vella said.
The mayor said there were many reasons why the Tal-Kus site was not suitable. These where addressed in depth by the council’s adviser, architect Lino Bianco, who highlighted a number of anomalies in the process.
He said the Tal-Kus site was implied as being the least desirable site yet the conclusion was for Tal-Kus.
The decision to go for Tal-Kus had been taken by the MEPA board, he said, even though “within the EPD and PD, the preferred site was the site at Ta` Brieghen. It was decided that the officers concerned would seek guidance from the MEPA Board as to which site should be subjected to an EIA. On 12 February 2004, the MEPA Board decided that the Tal-Kus site was the preferred site.”
The architect said that all Mepa Board sessions should be open to the public and votes conducted in public: “Yet the decision of the MEPA Board of 12 February 2004 that Tal-Kus is the preferred site was not conducted in public, thus breaching Article 13(5) of the Development Planning Act, 1992.”
“The EPS for Tal-Kus reads as a document attempting to justify the project in line with the brief of the client,” Mr Bianco said.
Listing the reasons why Tal-Kus was not suitable, Mr Bianco said it is a scheduled area of High Landscape Value and a Dark Sky Heritage Area.
The area known as Ta’ Trajsu is earmarked as disturbed habitat to be eventually restored back to its original land use, he said, adding that Wied Mgarr ix-Xini and Wied Sabbara and including Tal-Kus quarry, have been scheduled for their ecological, geomorphological and cultural heritage importance, implying “a general presumption against development” and encourages inclusion in international listings of protected areas.
Mr Bianco said that archaeological investigations, undertaken by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the Department of Archaeology of the University of Malta and the Local Councils of Xewkija and Sannat in the area, provided evidence of cultural presence from the 6th century BC right through the 4th century AD.
“The DPAR fails to acknowledge the ecological and archaeological importance of the site; and natural and cultural heritage bodies, including the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, were not consulted during the EIA process.”
Mr Bianco said that financial gains, avoid this poorly justified project, could easily be diverted to create ad hoc ferry transits to Malta, with minimal environmental health risks.
“It is estimated that an average of 77 tonnes of waste/recyclable materials would be transported to Malta every day, that is about five to six loads. These vehicles could be diverted straight to Malta, with superior odour management of putrescible wastes.”
He added that the proposal for a waste transfer facility for Gozo had to be evaluated through a strategic environment assessment of waste management issues in Gozo in light of European and local legislative framework and in line with contemporary norms of sustainable development.
According to circular Circular PA 2/96: “When existing development on a site is wholly or partly illegal (that is, it is not covered by a development permit), the DCC will not consider an application relating to a new development on that site, unless the illegal development is regularised.”
However, Mr Bianco said, the site covered by the application is currently subject to Enforcement Action ECF 524/00.
He said the application for the project will not regularise this infringement and thus cannot be granted as it runs counter to this circular.
Mr Bianco insisted that EIA regulations state that because of the size of the development an Environment Impact Statement, not an EPS, should have been carried out and, therefore, a public hearing was a pre-requisite.
Labour MEP Joseph Muscat said that one word summed up what was happening: “Revenge”.
Comparing the problem in Xewkija to that facing the residents in Wied il-Ghajn, Mr Muscat called on the people and the council not to allow the government to ride roughshod over them but to resist.
At the end, one of the Xewkija residents said they would not accept the project in Xewkija and called on those present to support the council in its “battle against the government”.
Also present were Labour MPs Roderick Galdes, Anton Refalo and Dr Justyne Caruana.