In the past, whenever the BWSC extension was discussed at Mepa, the sessions would be full of shouting and protests. Yesterday, when the new Mepa board discussed extending the trial period till next March, there were far fewer people but about the same uproar. Only, this time, the boot  was on the other foot.

Where previously, all the mayors of the surrounding region used to be present and vociferous, yesterday there was only one – the mayor of Marsaxlokk. The mayor of Birzebbuga who had been among the public for the previous applications yesterday, was not there when the issue regarded the BWSC plant about which he had often voiced his opinion in the past.

People like Astrid Vella, and some of her Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar colleagues, who had been present for the application regarding a huge block at San Gwann, disappeared when the board came to discuss the BWSC application.

Instead, there was present former minister George Pullicino who never attended any of the previous Mepa board meetings when the BWSC application was being discussed.

The application was an amendment to an IPPC condition which allowed the Delimara power station to use Heavy Fuel Oil till 30 June 2013.

The Mepa Directorate officials explained that the original timeline was to get the BWSC extension to the power station up and running by June 2012. But the plant took longer to be commissioned: in fact, it was only commissioned on 15 December 2012.

The IPPC permit conditions were that the plant had to be in full use for a full six months, which meant that the timeframe had to be extended to June 2013. August and this month are reserved for the finalizing of the report, a public consultation will be held in November and December, January 2014 is reserved for the writing of replies to issues arising from the public consultation and March 2014 earmarked for the decision by Mepa.

The Directorate officials also reported that two types of instrumental readings were used and the emissions are being monitored. The sulphur content of the HFO is not above the 1% level.

Edric Micallef, Marsaxlokk mayor, said the present government is committed to switch over to gas by 2015 and suggested extending the BWSC plant with HFO to 2015 and not thereafter. He also complained that the information given to the monitoring committee has some gaps and is not user friendly.

George Pullicino then began asking a series of questions to the Directorate officials. He asked if the 1% sulphur content rule had always been observed and was told the HFO used was always of 0.7% sulphur content, except during the Libya crisis when there were problems with supply and a 0.8% sulphur content HFO was used. Mr Pullicino remarked that at some point in the past people were told the sulphur content would be 3%.

He then asked if the study being drawn up by Bristol University had expressed any concern on the emissions. The Directorate official replied that the report is not drawn up yet but from the data collected so far, the emissions never exceeded the limits, not even the worst case scenarios envisaged by the EIA.

Concern was only expressed as regards secondary ambient conditions  such as caused by traffic.

Mr Pullicino then revealed that he had studied the, for him, very user-friendly data on emissions by the BWSC’s four stacks from 1 January to 31 August, studied in four areas – particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, carbon and nitrogen oxide – and the data show no exceedencies from the BWSC chimneys whereas traffic and even the Marsa plant generated more emissions.

The data from Enemalta also showed that the limits set by Enemalta were never exceeded except when the extension was being lit or shut down, which is normal to expect.

At this point, board member Veronique Dalli began to get fidgety and objected this kind of speech was out of order and should not be tolerated. Mepa chairman Vince Cassar told Mr Pullicino to get to the point.

Mr Pullicino blandly pointed out that had the preliminary data from the emissions been bad the Mepa board would not be considering extending the IPPC permit. In other words, the emissions from the BWSC plant are not worrying.

Mr Pullicino then reminded the board that prior to the general election, Labour leader Joseph Muscat had promised to switch over the BWSC plant to diesel the day after a Labour victory. This did not happen and the plant is still run by HFO, thus showing that the claim, also repeated by Dr Muscat, that the BWSC plant was a ‘factory of cancer’ was patently not true.

As Dr Dalli continued to object to Mr Pullicino’s line of questions, fellow board member Ryan Callus, MP, representing the Opposition on Mepa’s board, sprang to Mr Pullicino’s defence and said he should be allowed to continue. Fellow board member, Joe Sammut, MP who represents the Opposition argued that what Mr Pullicino was doing was not right.

Alternattiva chairman Carmel Cacopardo, who had taken part in the discussion on the preceding application, pointed out that the previous permit ran out on 1 July and argued that from 1 July to yesterday the BWSC plant had been operated illegally.

Mr Pullicino resumed: it was perfectly feasible to switch over the BWSC plant to diesel, as the Labour Party had promised. Since HFO was still being used, it is clear it is safe.

Mr Callus  then pointed out he had recently claimed that this application had bypassed the Mepa board. He had issued a statement regarding this. He is sorry that Mepa is being so mismanaged. The board had not been consulted before the latest round of public consultation.

This provoked a shouting match between Mr Pullicino and Dr Sammut with Mr Pullicino repeatedly asking who then took the decision to bypass the board. A Directorate official pointed out that the procedure followed was as per Mepa practice.

The vote saw all board members voiing in favour except for Alex Vella, and as he later pointed out on Facebook, Ryan Callus.

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-09-05/news/government-opposition-issue-statements-following-mepa-decision-2511994880/