Marsaxlokk residents are torn between their yearning for cleaner air that will come with a gas-fired power station and concern over the planned floating gas storage facility at Delimara.
This was the prevailing feeling at yesterday’s public consultation meeting at the Marsaxlokk primary school on the environmental impact assessment for the gas power station and the related gas storage and handling facilities.
None of those who spoke opposed a gas-fired plant but nearly all wanted the massive ship that will be used as a storage facility for liquefied natural gas to be berthed outside the port.
As the plans stand, the storage ship will be permanently berthed beneath the cliffs at Delimara inside Marsaxlokk Bay.
Marsaxlokk council consultant Arthur Ciantar, an engineer, insisted that, despite the risk of a major accident being one in 10,000 years, there was no guarantee that the incident would not happen tomorrow.
He also questioned the futility of holding a public consultation exercise if the authorities were not ready to take on board the principal concern of residents and relocate the floating storage unit outside the port.
Mr Ciantar was reacting to Enemalta official David Galea – the EIA studies were commissioned by Enemalta subsidiary Malta Power and Gas prior to choosing the winning bidder for the power station – who said locating the storage facility outside the port was problematic because security of supply could be compromised as a result of bad weather.
But Mr Galea also acknowledged that locating the offshore storage outside Marsaxlokk Bay came at a higher cost and would take longer to implement.
“It is not a secret that Enemalta is not in a financially good position and haste was a necessity,” Mr Galea said.
When asked point blank by a journalist whether a political decision had already been taken on where the storage facility should be located, Malta Environment and Planning Authority chairman Vince Cassar insisted that for the authority no decision had been taken yet.
“This is a lengthy process and each Mepa member on the board has a right to vote how he deems fit,” Mr Cassar said.
Enemalta is not in a financially good position and haste was a necessity
But Mr Ciantar’s concerns were also expressed by Dutch LNG expert Hans Passman, who said the risk study was incomplete and it would be safer for the storage ship to be placed outside the port.
However, one resident questioned whether any such concern had ever been raised over the past two decades when ships carrying liquefied petroleum gas (the type that is bottled for household use) offloaded their cargo in the middle of Marsaxlokk Bay without ever causing an accident.
Architect Paul Gauci, who coordinated the studies, said LNG will produce a third less carbon dioxide than heavy fuel oil – currently used in the power stations – substantially less nitrous oxides and almost no sulphur dioxide.
Mr Gauci said that initial studies showed that a gas cloud from the storage facility would have dissipated by the time it reached the power station itself.
However, he insisted that more detailed risk assessment studies will be conducted when Mepa considered the environment permit at a later stage.
Nationalist Party executive president Anne Fenech, a maritime lawyer, said the whole consultation process was “premature” until a maritime risk assessment was conducted to determine whether it was even possible to berth the storage ship at Delimara without disrupting maritime traffic in the area.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com