The launch of a Maghtab rehabilitation programme (TMID, 3 March) made interesting reading, not least as it carried some hope that we could finally benefit from the mess we have been so busy creating all these years.

But in the midst of the euphoria, there were one or two statements which give cause for concern. No clear picture of the composition of landfill gas was given. While this is likely to depend on the particular landfill, and specifically on how it was constructed, a common composition is 50-60 per cent of methane, 35 per cent of CO2 and a few per cent of “toxic gases”.

These last are generally organic compounds containing chlorine; if they are involved in combustion they will produce dioxins. For this reason it is advisable not to burn such substances but to remove them by filtering and possibly chemical reaction, disposing of the small amounts of hazardous waste generated in a lined landfill. The apparently low cost method of removal by incineration will either have the hidden cost of dioxin formation and dissemination or else involve costly incinerator designs to ensure a uniformly high temperature enclosure which will discourage even if not completely prevent dioxin formation.

Having decided to use incineration, the government did something that is hardly calculated to inspire public confidence in this operation. According to your report, the process was going to be monitored in real time in Germany. What has Germany to do with this?

As far as I know emissions monitoring in Germany provides information to German citizens. To take one instance, the cement works outside Hanover is monitored in real time and data is transmitted over a secure landline to the environment office in town. So why is Maghtab being monitored in Germany? Apart from raising suspicions, that puts the government in breech of the Aarhus Convention, which imposes on signatories the obligation to provide citizens with environmental information.

Methane is described as a clean burning fuel - which it is apart from CO2 production. But I do not believe that Zwejra and Ghallis are already producing three per cent of grid requirements. An intention there may be, but then hell, like Maghtab for that matter, is paved with good intentions.

E.A. Mallia

Attard