(Adds PL, Marsa council statements)
At no point does the University study on black dust, published yesterday, confirm that the main source of the black dust samples collected is the power station, Enemalta said this afternoon.
A report by 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.
Enemalta said in a reaction that of the 11 particles analysed, only two contained vanadium and nickel, which are characteristic markers found in dust emissions from the combustion of the fuel used at Marsa.
The report also failed to compare the flyash produced by the Marsa station to confirm whether or not the concentrations were similar.
"Enemalta points out that it does not agree that the sporadic episodes of increased black dust is attributable to Marsa Power Station.
"The plant operates constantly and the points mentioned, such as faults or soot blowing, are really not relevant.
"Enemalta carries out soot blowing twice or three times a day and logs of this activity are submitted to MEPA, so that they can correlate any abnormal dust falls, which has not happened to date."
It said that the black dust complaints were concentrated over a period of two months and could not be attributed to the 10-month period when the precipitators were out of service.
"At the time, our monitoring equipment recorded almost steady emissions, consistent with those before and after this period. Enemalta does get short term effects during boiler faults or boiler start-ups, but these generally only last for a few minutes in case of faults or intermittently over a few hours in case of start-ups.
Enemalta said that it was, however, making every effort to shut down the Marsa Power Station as soon as possible bearing in mind the energy supply requirements of the country.
Apart from purchasing lower sulphur fuel oil (0.7% instead of 1% sulphur) to reduce emissions, Enemalta was continuously investing in projects such as the Delimara power station extension and the interconnector cable which will connect Malta to the European grid.
Enemalta 'passing the buck' - Leo Brincat
Addressing a news conference on the same subject, Labour’s environment spokesman Leo Brincat said it was about time someone took responsibility for and addressed the black dust problem.
He asked how, a report dated last March, was published only yesterday and noted that in House Committee meetings last June, Mepa representatives had stated they did not yet have the report.
Mr Brincat asked why nothing had ever been done on a report commissioned by the then minister Francis Zammit Dimech in 1999, which had also indicated that the problem had probably originated from Marsa.
He also referred to Enemalta’s statement which he said was passing the buck, a symptom of this administration.
Mr Brincat noted that, as regulator, Mepa had responsibility and a war of words is useless.
The Prime Minister also had the ersponsibility to take bull by the horn with his firm pair of hands.
Council threatens legal action
The Marsa council in a statement called on Mepa to make good for the damage done by the black dust on the health of residents.
Mepa, the council said, should also explain why it had taken it such a long time to find the source of the dust.
The council appealed to Mepa and Enemalta to assume responsibility and consult the council to take the necessary steps for the benefit of residents.
Unless this is done, the council retained its right to take legal action against Mepa and Enemalta.