Kurt Sansone
Black dust riddle solved as study points to power plant
No other credible alternative sources -- report
Belching black smoke, the Marsa power station has been identified as the “most likely” source of black dust in Fgura in a new study. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli
The black dust that has plagued Fgura and its environs is generated by the Marsa power station, a University study has indicated.
The report’s author, Alfred Vella, who heads the University’s Chemistry Department, concluded that the “most likely candidate source” for black dust collected from the Fgura area was the power plant.
Traffic pollution was ruled out as a possible source of the coarse and relatively big black dust particles that have been a nuisance to residents for more than a decade.
The study published yesterday was commissioned by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and covers the period between August 2009 and March 2010.
A study conducted in 2000 by British experts had also concluded that the Marsa power station was the “likely” source of black dust in Fgura after traces of heavy metals were found in the samples.
However, in 2009, after mounting complaints from Fgura residents, a Mepa study proved inconclusive since no heavy metals were found.
The black dust phenomenon remained unresolved and criticism of the authority’s failure to pinpoint the problem eventually led to the formation of a parliamentary select committee that was tasked to investigate the matter.
The new study, endorsed by Mepa, is likely to close the chapter on the black dust blame-game even though residents have long maintained that the Marsa power station was to blame.
Prof. Vella said the black colour and structure of the larger particles were typical of particles emitted in a molten state from a high temperature source such as a combustion process or foundry.
The study also took note of wind conditions and found that a significant source of combustion-generated black dust was likely to be responsible for the black particles in atmospheric dust deposited in the south eastern direction at a distance of between one and three kilometres from the Grand Harbour. The worst affected towns were Fgura, Senglea and Tarxien.
The report concluded that the most likely candidate source was the Marsa power station.
“There are no other stationary combustion sources in the Grand Harbour area of such magnitude as to constitute credible alternative sources. While ships transiting the short distances within the harbour waters may also have emitted smoke particles, their intermittent short-lived contributions are likely to be very minor in comparison with the continuous output from the power station.”
The conclusion was corroborated by limited results of chemical analysis of the black particles found in the Fgura dust.
Some of the black spherical particles were found to contain carbon, sulphur, silicon, chlorine, iron, aluminium, calcium, nickel, vanadium and magnesium. The report did not enter into the potential health hazards of these particles.
Prof. Vella said the joint presence of carbon, nickel and vandamium “strongly suggested” that the dust originated from the combustion of fuel oil. The Marsa power station runs on heavy fuel oil.
“The presence of magnesium in the black particles can be explained by the fact that magnesium-containing chemicals are used as additives for the fuel,” Prof. Vella said, although the chemical is also found in rocks.
Traffic exhaust was ruled out as the source of the coarse black particles observed in the study. “Motor emissions produce a different kind of black dust which is much finer in size.
“It appears certain that the Marsa power station has been a constant source of emission of coarse black particles for a long time and that such a strong and constant source has left a clear mark or signature of pollution which is hard to miss,” Prof. Vella said.
He noted that a 1995 study on the impact of atmospheric pollution on church limestone surfaces had also reached the conclusion that the Marsa power station was a source of black dust contamination.
The new study was part of a larger work on the deposition of atmospheric coarse-sized particles in Malta and Gozo that focussed on the presence in such dust of chemical contaminants believed to originate almost exclusively from fireworks.
It was conducted by two university students and a German geologist as part of a thesis supervised by Prof. Vella and Bernardette Aquilina from the University’s chemistry department.
The report published yesterday by Mepa focussed solely on the black particles in dust and, despite its conclusions, Prof. Vella said these would have to be tested and confirmed by proper and sufficient scientific examination.
In a statement Mepa said that two years ago it established emission limit values for dust, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at the Marsa power station when it issued an environmental permit (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control).
When Malta joined the EU in 2004 the Marsa power station was granted a temporary lifeline of 20,000 operational hours after which it had to be shut down. The time limit expired earlier this year and the government is currently in talks with the European Commission to get an extension until the Delimara power station extension becomes fully operational next year and the island is linked by cable to the European grid in 2013.
However, in a recent visit to Malta, European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said the Marsa plant had to be upgraded in line with prevailing standards or else be closed down.
“Under the Large Combustion Plants Directive, there is no mechanism for an extension to either the number of operational hours or the dates applicable,” he said.
The Commission is evaluating new information on the matter that was sent by the government on August 8. It will assess whether the interpretation of Malta regarding the definition of operational hours can be accepted.
The black dust study and executive summary can viewed on the Mepa website www.mepa.org.mt/air-publications.
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Simon Abela
Sep 20th 2011, 17:34
After almost 11 years and wasting Tax payer money you solved the Puzzle. Which was my study proofed that I was right as published in my report presented to the Guze Ellul Mercer Foundation in August 2000. So after 11 years it took other foreigner to convince the Maltese Government where the Black soot is coming from.
This is one of the reason I left Malta, because the Maltase government never really cared or its people, they only provide lip service and always believed others than its own people.
Prosit Ministru ta l-ambjent !! Mhux lahaq il pulmun dak id duhhan, nahseb illhi mietu il-konstinwenti mardu u mietu. Staqsihom ghal vot !!! U never know maybe they will come and vote.
Mr Edward Mallia
Sep 20th 2011, 13:57
This whole business is a charade.There has never been any recent 'mystery of black dust'. The 'mystery' was 'solved' in 2000 after work by a chemistry B.Sc student. The root of the problem lay in the fact that the precipitators at Marsa were designed to catch fly ash from coal burning. When Marsa switched to HFO in mid-1995 they did not work properly; so the down (west) wind areas like Paola, Zabbar, Tarxien and Fgura started to experience increasing dust fall. With modification of the precipitators, matters did improve until one fine day in 2008/9 Mepa @discovered@ that Enemalta had been giving fly ash to Polidano Bros. for use in concrete making. As the said Polidano had no Mepa permit to store the ash, Mepa stopped the transfer dead. After Enemalta failed in a first attempt at export and its limited storage space began to fill up, the precipitators were switched off, at first intermittently and then full time. The black rain started up, this time accompanied by black comedy, as Enemalta, Mepa and even parliament concoted fairy stories as to the possible origin of the dust. This last 'Report' by Professor Alfred Vella and his University 'team' is just the final chapter of the operetta, timed for Independence Day, the supposed imminent closure of Marsa (another red herring) and the complete burial of the parliamentary black dust committee. Too bad we still have people willing to lend themselves to this sort of thing.
Jimmy Magro
Sep 20th 2011, 19:15
I admire Prof Mallia for his knowledge, details, frank and open manner in which he makes his analysis. People like him are given the side as he is no yes man and he takes no orders from no one. These are the bulls with the balls that Malta needs that without fear or favour call a spade, a spade.
I do not know how political leaders go to dare in Brussels and other international fora and tell the audience that Malta has been studying the issue of fly ash for more than 10 years.
And then we claim to be first in everything.
I love my country and sometimes I fell to ashamed that many in position do not have the courage to stop manipulating public opinion and declare what the real issues are.
Malta needs honest people that can realy analyse and find the right solutions, in a short period of time. In ten years alot of damage has been done and the issue is still not resolved.
Conclusion: there are vested interests. Shameful.
Stephen Koludrovic
Sep 20th 2011, 13:20
Another episode of the on going popular series Only in Malta !
Colin Stanley
Sep 20th 2011, 12:54
the problem has been known for ages, but now that the deadline is near for the power station to close anyway, they all of a sudden found the solution to the problem. PULL THE OTHER ONE PLEASE, IT HAS BELLS ON IT.
Victor Pulis
Sep 20th 2011, 12:50
Now that the source has been' discovered' One waits for a study on the adverse effects this dust has been having on people. Perhaps my great grand children will one day read the report!
Victor Pulis
Sep 20th 2011, 12:46
The study concluded what every 'cuc Malti' already knew!
Jimmy Magro
Sep 20th 2011, 12:32
The report states "most likely candidate source". So how many candidates were competing for this title?
IN Malta we do not have any other big industries except what is left of Malta Drydocks and traffic. Debris from the dessert should be brown I guess and not black.
Whatever. Will MEPA issue a compensation ruling in order to make good for damages for the communities affected by this environmental hazard that has been going on for years? What are, if any, the medical effects of this pollution on human beings?
Through the Eu we were promised immediate remedial as some foreign comments were made in another article. It was claimed that in Germany the people can stop the plant from operating. But in Malta? I am quite sure a better understanding and effort is required by a populist organisation to intervene into the matter. By the way not the ones that enjoy licking as we have enough of those.
AnnMarie Pawley
Sep 20th 2011, 12:13
5+ years to come up with what the rest of the population was aware of in the first place? Talk about job security!
Mr Charles Grima
Sep 20th 2011, 11:19
We needed a study for this? The people have been saying for ages ... this is coming from the power station.
My goodness what a country.
Alfred Galea
Sep 20th 2011, 10:40
what a shame it had to take all these years to tell us what we knew. Will someone tell us how all these years costed us to get this report now.
I hope that who suffered get compensated
Phil Humphries
Sep 20th 2011, 09:56
“It appears certain that the Marsa power station has been a constant source of emission of coarse black particles for a long time and that such a strong and constant source has left a clear mark or signature of pollution which is HARD TO MISS,” Prof. Vella said.
Something is only hard to miss when you don't want to find it. If the EU can be stalled with documents and discussions for another year, the government will be able to spin this into a pre-election boast ...
'Look how PN solved the Black Dust problem and safeguarded public heath..... (when it needed to) '
Mr william cauchi
Sep 20th 2011, 09:55
Even the village idiot looking out of his window and having a view of these chimneys would have come to the same conclusion decades ago.
And here we are in the year of our Lord 2011, after full investigations, surveys, taken endless samples and at no doubt at all,a very costly report, we come to the same ''enlightened'' conclusion.
Chimneys (especially power station ones) that sprout out thick black smoke for days, months, years on end are a health hazard. Oh boy, do they really???
Especially that piece that says ''have been a nuisance to residents''. Just nuisance!!! It must make those chaps from Fgura, blue in the face.
Remember Maghtab, how many endless years of breathing (and coughing) the stink and fumes and poison gasses from the Maghtab volcano did we from Swieqi/Madliena/Gharghur area have to endure before the same conclusion was ''detected'' and thanks to all, solved.
Hope those suffering from the Marsa Plant will also one day say, thank God it's over.
Mr Patrick Zammit
Sep 20th 2011, 09:28
It is farcical to look back on how this saga evolved over the years. All sorts of half truths, outright lies and diversions were thrown in the spokes of Government entities so that the truth never comes out.
Finally, now we have an "indication".
I wonder how many more years it would have taken us had we not been a "Smart Island".
Mrs jane camillleri haber
Sep 20th 2011, 09:18
I along with many others, have always maintained that the black particles plaguing our balconies and roofs for many years on and off ( according to wind shifts) were originating from the marsa power station. what convinced me of the serious hazard it is placing for us living in the areas of tarxien, senglea and fgura is that this summer I have also noticed a yellow layer of slime on the surface of any bucket of water I leave over-night on the roof. this brought home the seriousness of what wee might be drinking and inhaling. this yellow slime is most probably a sulphur compound or sulphur water emulsion. sulphur particles are not coarse and big, they rather resemble talcum powder in texture. the particles being finer stand a much bigger chance of being inhaled with every breath we take becoming acidic as encounters the lung moisture and possibly other elements, permanently damaging any organs it reaches. it would be interesting to know , now that the experts have spoken, how many hours it will take for the courts to order this plant to be permanently shut down and what health measures will the citizens of our areas (who have been sacrificed to feed the rest of the nation for many years), start benefitting from, starting with a programme of thorough medical investigation, as well as screening for the following five years after the closure of the plant. Any malady resulting from the exposure we have been enduring without being able to avoid, should be treated with preferential urgency and the patient generously compensated, it did not need a scientific study to close down the plant. all the world knows the dangers of heavy fuel combustion and especially in the most densely populated area of our country. this situation makes us feel as if we people of the south and south west are less valuable than fellow citizens.
Mr R ferriggi
Sep 20th 2011, 08:33
20-25 years ago i used to attend the technical institute in Paola.
i remember that all parked cars had a coating of black soot everyday.
the problem was there for a long time.
and our inefficient authorities confirm that the dust is from the power station ONLY in 2011.
nice.
certificate of incompetence.
Mr Michael Buhagiar
Sep 20th 2011, 08:21
Is this problem really and truely solved? I doubt it. I think that they missed the wood for the trees. As if traffic is not one possible reason for the black dust. Its easy to find a scape goat because it belches black powder. But have we truly solved the problem????? Not in my opinion. There are no power stations in the north, but still, black soot is evident. Can it be the hundreds of household chimneys which are adding to this prioblem. Basta nwahhlu fil-power station. Mela meta kellna l-faham fil-Menqa tal-Marsa kif hadd ma kien jitkellem u jghid li ghandhu t-trab iswed??????