[WATCH] Update 6 | Environmental permit for gas-fired power station approved

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With eight votes in favour and one against, the board of the Environment and Resources Authority on Monday approved the IPPC application for the gas-fired power station in Delimara.

ERA’s Directorate recommended the approval of the permit for a period of four years, subject to conditions in the permit, improvement programme items and payment of the bank guarantees and fees due.

Another important and decisive step nearer to implementation of a clean and sustainable #energy plan for #Malta -JM

— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) December 19, 2016

The vote against was cast by professor Maria Attard, the PN representative on the board.

The IPPC permit authorises the continued operation of Delimara 1, 2a and 2b to be operated by Enemalta Plc.. Delimara 3 - which will be converted to natural gas - will be operated by Delimara 3 Power Generation Ltd. Delimara 4 CCGT and the LNG terminal will be operated by ElectroGas Malta Ltd.

The IPPC permit issued covers a number of monitoring obligations which operators are to fulfil throughout the validity of the permit to ensure the required level of environment protection. The permit is for a multi-operator installation under the Industrial emissions (IPPC) Regulations, and includes a regulatory framework which covers operations common to all three operators, as well as operator specific sub permits regulating the operations of individual operators.

Seven-hour public meeting

During the seven-hour public meeting, the audience heard the Civil Protection Department argued that there was no need to alarm Marsaxlokk residents on possible effects of an emergency or spill at the LNG plant or tankers, especially since any chemical or toxic fallout cloud that might result would not reach the residential area of the village.

Emanuel Psaila was replying to questions put forward during a Q&A session of a public meeting the board of the Environment Resources Authority held at the Catholic Institute before voting on whether to approve the IPPC application for the Delimara Power Station Installation.

He said that the CPD had appointed experts to carry out the research and they had determined that a chemical or toxic cloud resulting from an accident at the plant or tanker would not reach the village.

Transport Malta confirmed it had received, on Sunday, full certification documentation for the jetty and the storm moorings from Electrogas and that these seemed in full compliance.

Electrogas explained that the company would be utilisng a five-day weather forecast system to monitor weather and sea conditions in Marsaxlokk Bay.

The system in place would have Electrogas engineers meeting the vessel master and portmaster 72 hours before any strong weather forecast to determine a course of action and meeting them again 24 hours before the forecast storm to decide whether to move the tanker and the FSU.

Moving on to more questions from the public, Carmen Buttigieg, ERA deputy chairperson, refused Din L-Art Helwa’s Joanna Spiteri Staines’ request that she be allowed to let Ann Fenech use her time to deliver her conclusions.

Ryan Callus, for the PN, said he could not understand how and why the operator had decided to have the tanker moved by tug-boats in the case of bad weather or emergency.

“I suspect the operator chose to remove the tanker’s engines in order to save on the costs of maintenance and upkeeping of the engines,” he said.

Callus asked whether the external emergency plan had not been tested so that resident of Marsaxlokk and Birzebbugia would not be made aware of how big a risk the plant posed.  

He said the CPD’s acting director, Emanuel Psaila, had taken too much responsibility on his own shoulders when he decided not to publish details of the emergency plan, citing national security.

“It is shameful that the only advice residents have so far been given, to follow in case of emergency, is to turn off the TV and not use mobile phones,” he said. “Is the CPD serious?”

Psaila said the CPD’s recommendations and plans had been drawn up while John Rizzo was still director.

He also insisted Rizzo had been planning his resignation for a number of months and had not resigned because he was disappointed with the CPD’s plans, as suggested in sections of the media.

Birzebbugia mayor Joe Cutajar said the board should keep in mind that the town’s residents wanted a gas power-station to replace the ‘cancer factory’ that was the Delimara power-station.

“Is it acceptable to have the sea throughout the bay covered in soot or to have six residents die of cancer in a span of two months?” he asked.

In response to supplementary questions put to him by Fenech, TM’s Bugeja confirmed that the jetty to which the LNG tanker would be moored had been certified for wave of up to 2.5m height.

Environment and Resources Authority board members during this morning's public hearing

The storm moorings had been certified for 3.1m height waves.

Bugeja explained that quick-release hooks had been installed on the FSU to help anchor it to the jetty and – on the seaward side – to the LNG carrier that would berth alongside to transfer the LNG into the FSU.

An Enemalta spokesman confirmed that, even if the LNG tanker was released from its mooring and tugged outside the port, the company still would be able to provide enough electricity to meet the country’s demands, even in peak periods.

Earlier

An external emergency plan for the gas-fired power station must be completed by 2018, Malta’s Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) authority advisor has said.

The Environment and Resources Authority is holding a public meeting today on whether to grant the gas-fired power station an IPPC permit or not.

ERA chairman Victor Axiak has skipped the meeting, citing a conflict of interest resulting from his previous engagement by Electrogas as an independent consultant to carry out an environmental impact assessment of the project.

The COMAH advisor told the meeting that, according to the Seveso directive – the EU legislation dealing specifically with major hazards – local authorities have until 2018 to complete an external emergency plan.

In an overview of the requirements under the directive, it was explained that all risks have been adequately evaluated and all fall within an acceptable level.

A spokesman for the Civil Protection Department (CPD) explained that the ‘most realistic’ danger associated with the operation of the new gas power station is an intentional attack by someone working inside the plant.

It was explained that the project required both an internal and external emergency plan with Electrogas being required to draw up the internal plan, and the external plan falling under the remit of the civil protection department (CPD).  

Owing to the fact that the CPD’s experience on LNG was only theoretical, the department said that it had issued an international call for applications and had selected Flack – an international company – to offer consultation services as well as training and other operational services to the CPD.

According to the CPD, Flack has identified the four largest risks to the project and had based its studies on the associated dangers.

The public was reassured that the CPD had purchased the necessary equipment, such the necessary vessels to reach the power station from the sea, as well as equipment to detect small quantities of LNG, compressed air foam and a range of other equipment specific to dealing with emergencies related to the LNG fuel.

During the CPD’s presentation, a comparison was made between LNG and LPG and it was emphasised that LPG, which is “found in households”, is far more flammable, and therefore more dangerous than LNG.

Engineer Arthur Ciantar wants to hold ERA responsible

During his intervention, engineer Arthur Ciantar questioned why Malta was using criteria of other countries and why Malta did not have its own criteria.

 “In Maltese law, there is no provision that says that there is an acceptable number of deaths. I will be challenging this legally because I will not allow my family and those living around us to become a statistic,” said Ciantar.

Ciantar said that it was unacceptable for ERA to have said that guidelines and policies were still in the process of being updated, especially when the Seveso III directive had been approved by the European parliament in 2012, four years ago.

On the external emergency plan. Ciantar said that the answers provided where in no way acceptable. He said that there had been no effective public consultation, and no information has been given to the public on what will happen.

“The people of Marsaxlokk do not know what the siren sounds like, they do not know what they should do in case of an emergency,” he said.

In addition to this he stressed that according to Seveso III, a drill was required in order for people to know what to do, yet this has not happened.

He said that the authorities were only using the argument of national security as an excuse, adding that everyone knows that there is a tanker in Marsaxlokk harbour and there was very little to keep secret.

According to Malta’s COMAH advisor no country, other than the Netherlands, had an acceptable number of deaths stated in its laws. Furthermore, he said that the risk assessment does not speak of an acceptable number of fatalities but of a level of risk associated with a specific number of fatalities.

“It means that the risk of 10 fatalities is of lower than 10-7. This does not mean that we are accepting ten fatalities, but that the risk associated with this number of fatalities is lower than this probability,” he said.

He said that while the methods of assessments used to determine risk where not outlined in Maltese law, the criteria used are based on international best practice. Moreover, he said that the most conservative estimates were used in every case.

On the issue of national security, a CPD spokesman said that the biggest risk was that of a terrorist attack with the intention of causing as much disruption as possible: “For this reason, it does not make sense of the CPD to make public certain details related to the logistics of the emergency plan.”

A question and answer session will be heard later in the afternoon where the members of the board will be hearing more concerns from the public. A decision is expected following the Q&A session.