MEPA admits guilt over Delimara power station extension’s chimneys – PL

The Opposition spokesman for the environment Leo Brincat said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority should all be “ashamed”.

Brincat was referring to MEPA admitting that the public is going to be consulted only now - and after - that the chimneys at the Delimara Power Station have been built.

“Consultation called after a project is finished only makes a farce out of the consultation process,” Brincat said. “How can the height of a chimney be regulated if this is already built?”

Brincat recalled how government took years before letting other plants operate because they did not have the necessary environmental permits. “But in this case, government is committed to start operating the first phase of the power station by May 2012,” Brincat added.

He said this was happening despite no studies on the environment have been carried out yet.

Brincat said government is a “threat” to Malta’s environmental health. He said the chimneys' final height should have never been confidential as it also effects national security.

He added that government should have never permitted Enemalta to build the chimneys when it knew that MEPA didn’t have the necessary studies and forecasts (air dispersion modules) on how the length of the chimneys was going to effect air quality.

Brincat claimed government does not yet know what one may expect from the extension of the power station that will run on Heavy Fuel Oil.

“It is clear that government is going to keep on playing a dangerous game for the citizens’ health,” Brincat said, adding that the Maltese will have to pay with their own health government’s shortcomings.