People living close to quarries could soon breathe a sigh of relief as Mepa launches a system to control the release of dust particles.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is drawing up a new permit system that will see regulations tailor-made for quarries in different localities.
"The problems faced by operators in Mqabba are different from those experienced in Naxxar or San Pawl tat-Tarġa," Michael Sant, responsible for industry and permits within Mepa's Environment Protection Directorate, said.
All quarries will have to abide by the new regime and operators will be required to start the process by the end of the year.
Mr Sant explained that permits, including existing ones, were issued on a short-term basis and quarries would need to adhere to the new system once their current permit expired. This will be a far cry from the situation in the past. Until the 1980s, quarry owners only required a police permit to start digging. The planning authority had later set boundaries and imposed limits on excavations.
Residents of towns and villages close to quarries have long complained they were living in a cloud of dust, even blaming the dust from quarries for health problems, like asthma.
Mr Sant said quarries in Attard, which were also used for waste disposal, were located very close to residents. There were hard stone quarries in the locality, which employed blasting and crushing, while quarries in Mqabba handled soft stone, which meant noise and dust levels were lower.
The impact of dust on Dingli residents from quarries in the locality was limited because trucks passed through isolated roads to leave the quarry area. Thus, the dust would have diminished by the time they reached a residential area.
With this in mind, the directorate is reviewing the level of activity in the quarrying sector, including quarrying itself, recycling of construction and demolition waste, land filling of inert waste and ancillary activities like tarmac production. There are between 80 and 90 operational quarries in Malta. These have been grouped into 12 clusters with different needs.
Mr Sant said that while certain conditions, such as how to refill a quarry and what material to use, would be standard to all quarries there would also be site-specific measures.
"We are looking at quarries' proximity to residential or protected areas and the nature of the activity carried out in the different quarries," he said.
Some operators might need to buy wheel-washing equipment, others gear to mist the quarry to control dust, while others might be asked to get bank guarantees.
Operators will soon be contacted and called in for meetings with Mepa officials, who will explain the procedure and help them start implementing the necessary measures. "We will walk them through the process because there is a natural reluctance to abide by new regulations," Mr Sant said. He said that in the future, permits would be tied with other regulatory obligations, such as only allowing those with a valid permit to bid for government tenders.
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