A top Enemalta official told the planning authority board that approved the first Delimara power station extension permit that the company had a hazardous waste disposal contract when this was not the case, according to the Auditor General.
During the Malta Environment and Planning Authority public meeting last January, when the outline development permit for the plant was approved, Enemalta's chief technical officer mentioned the existence of a waste disposal contract for both power stations even though two months earlier the company had informed the Auditor General it was still negotiating with a foreign company involved in the recycling business.
The information comes from the Auditor's investigation into the tender award to Danish company BWSC for the multi-million euro Delimara power station extension.
The Auditor said National Audit Office officials were present for the Mepa hearing on January 28 when the Enemalta officer "made public mention of a contract regarding waste disposal signed in October 2009". Subsequently, the Auditor asked for a copy of the contract mentioned by the corporation's CTO and this was made available on February 2. However, it transpired that the contract only covered the Marsa power station fly ash and when the Enemalta official was questioned on the matter by the Auditor he said he actually meant to refer only to Marsa waste disposal.
"When confronted with the fact that, presumably, the Mepa board was interested solely in Enemalta's arrangements for the Delimara power stations, the official negated that he had ever informed the Mepa board that Enemalta had any such arrangement for Delimara waste," the Auditor said.
But the Auditor insisted in his report that the official had "stated categorically" during the hearing that Enemalta had entered into a contract for the export of fly ash from Marsa power station and bottom ash from both Marsa and Delimara.
The Auditor later confirmed with the company's chairman that there was no contractual agreement for the Delimara waste.
This is significant because the new power station's pollution control mechanisms are expected to collect anything between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes of fly ash, which, according to the Environment Impact Assessment, will have to be exported in a timely fashion to avoid disruption to the provision of electricity supply.
Malta has no hazardous waste disposal facility and so the only option would be to export the waste under strict EU guidelines.
The volume of waste collected would have to be shipped out at a rate of 15 containers a day according to the EIA.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com