The new power plant should be run on the more expensive diesel rather than heavy fuel oil as this would drastically reduce the amount of hazardous waste produced, a consultant who drew up the environment impact assessment has recommended.

To be operated with heavy fuel oil, the Delimara power station is expected to generate 10,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year. This was described as a "major negative impact" by the study's coordinator, engineer Mario Schembri.

He was speaking yesterday afternoon at a poorly attended and very calm public consultation meeting on the EIA, called by the planning authority and held underneath a tent just outside the power station.

Mr Schembri suggested running the plant on diesel to mitigate the negative impact of waste generation. He was explaining the findings of the environment impact assessment of the new plant and fielding questions from the floor.

The plant, for which Enemalta has already signed a contract with Danish company BWSC, will use heavy fuel oil and the waste generated by the air purification systems would have to be exported at a rate of 15 containers per week. Failure to export in a "timely fashion" could cause a "disruption to the provision of electricity supply", the con-sultants said.

The public's lack of trust in Enemalta was evident throughout the meeting.

Paediatrician Patrick Zahra questioned the trustworthiness of Enemalta's emissions data, insisting public health safety was only a secondary issue for the state-owned energy supplier.

He provided the consultants with a photograph of black smoke coming out of the power station's chimney to show the inconsistency in the way Enemalta operated its power plants.

"If Enemalta was really interested in public health we would not be discussing a plant working on heavy fuel oil but one that would be working on natural gas," Dr Zahra said, pointing out that the impact assessment was based on unverified emissions data provided by BWSC.

Engineer Arthur Ciantar, a consultant for the Marsaxlokk local council, also questioned the raw data provided by the Danish company since it was not ready to "guarantee" its validity.

He asked why Enemalta intended running the plant on heavy fuel oil when diesel (gas oil) was expected to create much less waste and emit less dust.

Marsaxlokk deputy mayor Edric Micallef called for air quality monitoring equipment to be installed at the Delimara power station.

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo picked on the issue, insisting it would have made more sense for the EIA to be concluded when the tendering process for the equipment was still open since its conclusions could have determined the choice of the technology.

One of the losing bidders had offered technology running on natural gas but this was turned down. Among the reasons was that provisions had to be made for the delivery and storage of gas, which Malta was not yet equipped for.

The chosen plant can be converted to work on natural gas at an additional expense of €27 million.

Mr Ciantar also questioned the noise data used by the consultants to reach their conclusions that the new plant would not produce any additional impact, since these were provided by Enemalta and BWSC.

Referring to data published in Parliament recently on the incidence of cancer in the vicinity of the Marsa power station, Labour MP Leo Brincat called for a serious health impact study on the new plant.

The power station will have eight diesel combustion engines producing a total of 144MW, which on their own would not be enough to replace the energy currently generated by the Marsa power station which is expected to close down by 2015.

The shortfall in electricity would be made up by the proposed interconnector with Sicily for which studies have already started.

The consultation meeting was attended by representatives of the Marsaxlokk, Birżebbuġa and Marsascala local councils.

A second meeting was held afterwards for non-governmental organisations.

The EIA was commissioned by Enemalta and drawn up by AIS Consulting. The meeting was chaired by Mepa environment director Martin Seychell, who took note of all the issues raised.