'Toxic' waste stored in Corradino field

Waste which, according to laboratory tests commissioned by Greenpeace earlier this year, is toxic, has been dumped in unsealed oil drums in a field at Corradino, giving rise to a pungent smell as well as an eyesore.

Greenpeace insists the waste, which forms part of the oil sludge removed from the Norwegian ship Kronviken by Malta Drydocks towards the end of last year, is toxic.

Separate tests by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) had given conflicting results.

But while Greenpeace had tested sludge from the ship, Mepa had only tested ash.

Alfred Vella, who conducted the tests for Mepa, said when contacted yesterday he had only conducted tests on ash samples, the remains of incinerated ship waste.

He said he was never asked to conduct tests on sludge.

Any product originating from crude oil, Prof. Vella said, was toxic.

Asked if Malta was equipped to treat sludge waste, he said he did not think so because such waste had to be properly incinerated.

Originally, the sludge was being dumped in plastic bags at Maghtab and covered with construction waste. But at the beginning of January, when the controversy was at its peak, Mepa introduced new procedures on the management and disposal of oil sludge and other hazardous waste generated by the ship repair industry.

According to the new procedures, all oil sludge off-loaded from ships had be stored in rigid containers, properly marked and transported to a designated site at Maghtab.

The hazardous material would remain in storage at Maghtab pending the completion of a new engineered landfill where recycling facilities are to be made available.

The remaining Kronviken sludge was stored in dock six at Malta Drydocks for some months and pictures show the sludge seeping out of the drums.

The drums were some weeks ago moved to the Corradino field, which also belongs to the 'yard. Some of the drums are now uncovered.

'Yard chief executive officer Peter Moore said the waste was on MDD property where it would remain until an engineered landfill was available. He did not wish to comment further on the issue saying this was now static.

Greenpeace executive director Paul Debono says Malta is dealing with the waste issue in an irresponsible manner.

"How dare the government allow foreign waste to be dumped here in Malta?

"It will be the Maltese taxpayers who would have to pay the real cost of the Kronviken cleaning operation. It certainly won't be the Norwegian ship owner, who had his job done and left, or MDD, which already has a big deficit.

"The Norwegian owner must be laughing to have had his ship cleaned here for cheap," Mr Debono said.

He stressed that Malta did not have the facilities to deal with this kind of waste so such jobs should not be accepted.

The Kronviken had come to Malta in December to be cleaned from sediment of crude oil which accumulates over a number of trips. This residual sludge should be stored in air tight containers and exported to a country where it could be dealt with properly, preferably to Norway, as that is where the ship owner comes from, Mr Debono said.

Malta Drydocks employees had refused to work on the ship and Polish workers had had to be brought in to do the work.

Before the ship came to Malta, Greenpeace had alerted the authorities and the Department of Customs had replied that the "disposal of oil and acid sludge has to be carried out according to an established procedure and definitely may not be dumped at the Maghtab dumpsite".

According to the results of the samples analysed for Greenpeace by ITS Sunbury Technology Centre in the UK, one of the leading laboratories in Europe for the geochemical analysis of oil, "in addition to the most visible effects which can occur following the release of oil to the environment, many of the chemicals naturally present in oil are toxic if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through prolonged contact with the skin.

"This is particularly true of the various aromatic compounds commonly present, and which make up the major component by weight of the two oil samples analysed in this investigation...

"Further analysis confirmed that both samples contained a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons... PAHs as a group are among the most toxic and environmentally persistent components of oil."

Crude oil, Mr Debono said, was toxic in itself and it was a misrepresentation to say otherwise.