More enforcers to monitor clean air

Malta will soon be adding a second mobile monitoring station to improve its air quality monitoring capacity and to investigate reports from the public, the parliamentary secretary for the environment, Parliamentary Secretary George Pullicino has announced.

The enforcement arm of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was also being beefed up to ensure proper and effective follow-up action and more environment enforcement officers were being engaged, he said when addressing a seminar on air quality.

Clean air was essential to public health, the environment and the economy, Mr Pullicino said.

As part of the air quality management process, the Environment Protection Directorate within MEPA has developed a seven-point action plan for a comprehensive air pollution prevention programme.

These were: source emissions monitoring, national emission ceiling inventories and action plans, long range air pollution effects programme, air monitoring for particulate matter, benzene and lead-in-air, background air quality monitoring, passive tube air monitoring and real-time continuous air monitoring.

Mr Pullicino pointed out that action to improve air quality taken to date included the introduction of low-sulphur fuel for the power stations. This is to be followed by the introduction of lead replacement petrol early next year.

The use of bio-diesel (fuel derived from used vegetable oil) was being assessed, and some government-owned vehicles are already running on this cleaner fuel. It was hoped the general public would follow suit.

The government would like to see more effort in the use of renewable energy sources, and he was looking forward to the day when VRT tests would include emissions control, Mr Pullicino concluded.