No enforcement against Power station chimneys – MEPA

MaltaToday asked this simple question to MEPA… and the the reply was mind-boggling. 

MEPA is effectively absolving Enemalta of committing any illegality, by building the 65 metre chimneys while admitting that it still has to determine their final height.

According to MEPA, when the MEPA Board approved the full development application for the development of a 144MW extension to the Delimara Power Station in May 2009, “it had approved the construction of the chimneys.”

But the same spokesperson declares that “the final height of the chimneys remained a reserved matter” and that “the final height of the chimneys will be determined through the Integrated Pollution Prevention Control (IPPC) permit.”

In MEPA’s newspeak, the chimneys could be build legally even if it technically still possible for the authority to oblige Enemalta to change the height of the chimneys.

When asked directly by MaltaToday whether MEPA intends to issue an enforcement order since the chimneys were build before their height was determined in the IPPC permit, the MEPA spokesperson replied that MEPA has no such intention because “Enemalta was not violating the permit conditions by constructing the chimneys.”

The Marsaxlokk council has recently filed a judicial protest against Enemalta, claiming that two chimneys at the power station extension in Delimara were built without a permit.

The council noted that when MEPA granted the permit for the extension, it was pointed out by both the corporation and by MEPA that the height of the chimneys was “a reserved matter.”

Therefore, the council said, the chimneys had been built and completed even though they were not covered by a MEPA permit.

But Enemalta rebutted, insisting that the permit issued in May 2009 allows for the construction of the plant.

According to Enemalta, the IPPC permit which still has to be issued is the permit which allows plant operation, and not the one determining the presence or not of the chimney.

A recently published report on air quality studies carried out by Ecoserv on behalf of MEPA, states that the present height of the chimneys is suitable and that an increase in height would not bring further benefits.