MEPA attacked on permit for use of residual material from oil exploration

Labour environment spokesman Joe Mizzi said yesterday that the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority (MEPA) had issued a permit to Medserv enabling it to use residual material from oil exploration companies in the production of concrete blocks at the Freeport.

The material was radioactive and contained dangerous heavy metals, Mr Mizzi claimed.

The developer had made it clear, Mr Mizzi said, that the residual material was being brought to Malta to curb and eliminate marine pollution.

In a statement Mr Mizzi said that he had called on the MEPA to withdraw the permit which had been issued "irresponsibly, without consultation and without carrying out an assessment of the impact that such material could have on the environmental and social sectors among others".

Quoting from PA file 3552/02, Mr Mizzi said that the availability of a cutting treatment plant in Malta will provide oil exploration companies in the area with a facility capable of tackling their cuttings, eliminating further pollution to the surrounding water.

While Medserv was saying that it will be importing about 50 cubic metres of cuttings per week, from documents on the proposed development, it was apparent that there will be a capacity of between 800 and 1,000 cubic metres in a 40-hour week.

The claim that the material could pose a danger could be seen from the fact, he said, that it would be brought to Malta in five to six skips a week, with each skip carrying five cubic metres with the skips being only 70 per cent full.

Quoting further from the same PA document, Mr Mizzi seemed to give the lie to his own statement: "the quantities (of zinc, chromium and lead) are not sufficiently large to cause the product to pose significant environmental risk when in use for the indicated purpose.

"Moreover, if the consolidated solid obtained from the cuttings is incorporated in mass concrete (as aggregate) the rate of release of heavy metal species will be further reduced due to decreased contact with water with concomitant further lowering of the environmental risk".