Enemalta defends itself over 'black dust' allegations
Enemalta this evening defended itself from allegations of responsibility for black dust, believed to be soot, found over the southern parts of Malta and pointed out that public reports indicated that dust samples collected from Fgura by MEPA did not contain nickel or vanadium, clearly indicating that its source did not relate directly to the power station.
Reacting to a press conference by Opposition environment spokesman Leo Brincat, Enemalta said Mr Brincat had referred to a study conducted in 2000 that attempted, without any definitive conclusion, to determine causes of black dust in certain parts of Malta.
"The study is hardly relevant to today's situation. Over this time the fuel used by the Marsa power station has been improved and emissions have been reduced by about 80% since then. In addition all stacks at the power stations have since been equipped with continuous emissions monitoring equipment."
Enemalta said that Mr Brincat had failed to mention that there were numerous other possible sources of black dust such as the combustion of fuel, other than at the power station, such as the Marsa incinerator, vehicular traffic, ships ferrying in and out of the harbours, bakeries and industrial boilers among others.
The spokesman also failed to explain why there appeared to be no correlation between wind patterns and the finding of this dust, especially when considering that the Marsa power station's operation was not intermittent.
"Mr Brincat is also wrong when speaking about the new plant in Delimara. The dust collected from the filters of the new plant will be collected directly in containers and exported for disposal or recycling. 95% of this dust is non-hazardous," the corporation said.
"The references made to the Delimara extension, that is yet to be developed, with black dust experienced intermittently over the past several years, is baseless."
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C. Zammit
Oct 30th 2009, 00:14
"The references made to the Delimara extension, that is yet to be developed, with black dust experienced intermittently over the past several years, is baseless."............baseless my feet!!!!
I live in Marsaxlokk, not so near to the Power Station and we experience black dust deposits on our roofs and balconies!!! ..........Could be Santa Claus's reindeers emitting particulate matter!!!!!!!
P Sciberras
Oct 29th 2009, 19:35
Has anybody ever asked if Enemalta is using recycled burned motor cars oil to operate the Marsa power station?
Vincent Borg
Oct 29th 2009, 18:47
Maybe it is BLACK MANNA coming down direct from Heaven above who knows.
g.c.Forte
Oct 29th 2009, 18:41
In this country nobody is responsible or accountable. But if Cikku iz-zghir do some thing !!! "Hol xgharek u gib iz zejt" And we need oil.
Gerard Cassar
Oct 29th 2009, 18:41
The black dust is also found in the neighbourhood of St. Luke's Hospital.
According to the government officials at the Power station the black dust drops from the sky from aliens. once the power station is not the culprit.
It is more profitable to joke than accuse the P.N. government of any kind of missdeed.
Remember the P.Ns. are angels on earth.
victor pulis
Oct 29th 2009, 18:23
The ammount of black dust and the huge area that it covers clearly indicates that the source of the emissions must be quite impressive and not easily concealed. What better candidate than the power station? If it's not the culprit then how can such a prolific polluter go unnoticed? What is really going on in ths case?
william sciberras
Oct 29th 2009, 17:59
since the technology required to identify the source of this dust does not seem to have been invented yet. (after all we have been trying for ten years) perhaps we should shift our attention to the volume of black dust in question. i do not imagine that there could be a lot of sources which could generate such volumes of dust.
EDMOND BALDACCHINO
Oct 29th 2009, 17:44
oooh, so it is not the power station , it is something else ??!!? but what are we going to do ,blame it on anything else ?,and we people inhale !