A mushroom farm located in the area known as Tas-Salib, limits of Rabat has ceased its operation after Mepa’s enforcement directorate clamped down on the owners of the farm who refused to abide by the environment operational conditions which had been imposed in the planning permit.

With the assistance of the Civil Protection Department, the enforcement directorate removed nearly 500 tanks of hazardous material found to be stored on site.

Although the mushroom farm has been in operation since 1976, and was in possession of all necessary planning permits, it was failing to adhere to a number of operational conditions, Mepa said.

These conditions had been imposed in one of the later planning permits covering the enlargement of the farm so as to safeguard and minimise the odour nuisance and other impacts on residents living in the vicinity and on the surrounding environment.

While several meetings were held between the authority and the farm’s operator for them to regularise their position and improve the farm’s operational activities these proved to be ineffective. In view of the latter, the authority eventually ordered the farm to cease all operations and close down in early September.

Following an inspection earlier this year by newly recruited specialised enforcement officers, some 500 tanks containing methyl bromide were found to be stored on site.

This pesticide, previously used for fumigation in agriculture, was phased out in the year 2000 and banned under the Montreal Protocol from 2005, due to its highly hazardous and toxic nature to both human health and the environment.

The operator was ordered to have the tanks and their hazardous contents disposed of according to the strict protocol procedures governing such disposal.

When the authority ordered the farm to cease its operations and found that the hazardous material had still not been disposed of, it called in the assistance of the Civil Protection Department who removed the tanks from the site to a secure location where they are being appropriately treated.

Residents in the neighbourhood welcomed Mepa’s intervention which brought to an end the nuisance that they had been subjected to by the farm’s odours.