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Kurt Sansone
Three sites proposed for a new composting plant to replace the Sant Antnin facility in Marsaskala, refused in favour of keeping the Sant Antnin location, did not satisfy the minimum land area required to accommodate the proposed facility and so could have never been selected, rendering the analysis report commissioned by WasteServ a farce.
The alternative sites studied were chosen by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on the mistaken premise that the Sant Antnin plant currently covers a land area of 1.8 hectares.
In fact, the current recycling plant in Marsaskala covers an area of 4.5 hectares, as stated in the report dated June 2004 compiled by SLR Consulting for WasteServ, where preliminary designs had already shown that the proposed development required at least four hectares of land area.
All the alternative sites identified by MEPA are less than half the size of the current location in Marsaskala.
The three alternative locations studied were: Tal-Mara just off the Freeport in Birzebbuga, the Ricasoli Industrial Estate in Kalkara, and a site adjacent to the proposed engineered landfill in Ghallis. The largest of these sites, Kalkara, just covers a land area of 2.4 hectares, half the area in Marsaskala. The area in Ghallis covers an area of two hectares and the site in Birzebbuga is just 1.8 hectares.
The development being proposed by WasteServ, which includes a composting facility, a materials recovery centre and a waste-to-energy plant, can never be accommodated in any of the alternative sites since they are too small.
But the deficiency by MEPA to identify suitably sized alternative sites to be studied by SLR may result from a major mistake in the project description statement (PDS), which outlined the parameters for the development proposed by WasteServ.
As stated in the Alternative Site Assessment report by SLR, the experts state that the project description statement “erroneously stated that the area of the Sant Antnin site was 1.8 hectares”. The report also states that “a minimum area of around four hectares is required to accommodate all of the elements of the development”.
The terms of reference given to SLR Consulting prevented the experts from considering other sites beyond those identified by MEPA. The planning authority had also identified specific areas within the chosen locations and SLR’s assessment was based on these identified areas.
With none of the alternative sites satisfying the basic requirement for suitable land area, it is no wonder the experts concluded that Sant Antnin is the ideal location for the construction of the new waste facility. In simple terms there was never a real choice between alternatives.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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