The chairman of the planning authority came under intense fire from MPs yesterday as they grilled him over why a report into the black dust was not submitted to a parliamentary committee specifically tasked with investigating the phenomenon.

Reasons given of industrial action and honeymoon are an insult to one’s intelligence

House Speaker Michael Frendo expressed concern that the committee had not been given a copy of the report even though it had been completed in March and the Clerk of the House had asked for all issued and pending reports.

It was even worse that he himself and the committee members had come to know of the report from the media.

The report, commissioned by the Office of the Prime Minister and drawn up by chemistry professor Alfred Vella, was endorsed by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and reported in the media last week. It concluded that the “most likely candidate source” for black dust collected from the Fgura area was the Marsa power plant. The dust has been plaguing the area for years.

The Permanent Secretary at the OPM told the committee that Mepa had taken time to analyse the report. As far as he knew, any document could be tabled in Parliament only when the House was in session, he added.

Mr Speaker said that when Parliament appointed a select committee to study any matter, it was anomalous to publish a related report before the committee had had a chance to see it.

Mepa chairman Austin Walker apologised and took full responsibility for any shortcoming in the handling of the report vis-à-vis the select committee. He said he had asked the Permanent Secretary for advice and been told that the report should first be published and then sent to the committee.

Giving “reasons, not justifications” for the delay in publication he mentioned a change in Mepa’s Director for the Environment around February and March, administrative errors, more than three months of industrial action at Mepa’s Hexagon House and the fact that a unit manager had taken a month off for his honeymoon.

Government backbencher Jesmond Mugliett said that if Prof. Vella had been appointed to carry out the study by the Prime Minister, he should have submitted his report to the OPM and not to Mepa.

Opposition MP Leo Brincat said it was unacceptable, even administratively, that Mepa should have taken from March to August to finish analysing the report. It was totally unacceptable that committee members had received the dossier just seconds before the meeting. This constituted disrespect to Parliament.

He said the industrial action and honeymoon mentioned by Mr Walker were an insult to one’s intelligence.

Mr Mugliett said the committee’s existence was extraordinary in itself. It existed only because of mistrust in Mepa doing its job as the only competent authority on the environment. The authority had known about Enemalta’s precipitators having been switched off for months, but had only later started taking samples. The Prime Minister had appointed a non-Mepa expert to carry out the study so that there would be no suspicion of a cover-up.

The fact that this report containing controversial views had not been published for six months would exacerbate the people’s lack of trust in Mepa.

Government Parliamentary Assistant Franco Debono repeatedly asked how the black dust could harm human health.

In answer to questions, Mr Walker said no mitigation measures had been taken since the report was concluded, although it had not made any recommendations in that regard.

He said that since the Marsa power station was already working on a derogation of 20,000 hours, its emissions could temporarily be higher than normal. Higher emissions observed by the Marsa and Delimara power stations on three fronts, including sulphur, were still being investigated and analysed.

He said the power station was controlled by an environmental permit which required periodic audits, including that of fuel use and fly ash.

These audits were being held regularly, but emissions would be hard to control even with mitigation measures.

Prof. Vella said the particles were 20 to 150 microns in diameter and were considered big. For damage to human health the particles must find a way to enter internal organs, which the larger particles could not do. The very finest particles were of no real consequence because they could be exhaled back after being inhaled.