MEPA experts express concern on ODZ petrol stations

The EPD is responsible for advising on issues related to environmental standards and policies.

Over the past years MEPA has actively encouraged the relocation of petrol stations from urban areas to the open countryside. 

But the EPD is now objectingto further open-ended or ad hoc commitments for new or extended petrol station developments in ODZ areas.

This emerges from a report presented by the EPD recommending the refusal of an application to re-locate an existing petrol station to a 3,391 square metre site in Tal-Blata l-Gholja in Mosta.

The application was presented by Paul Vella, owner of Ballut Blocks.

“While the EPD acknowledges that the relocation of an existing kerb-side pump away from an inhabited urban area may be beneficial, this justification is being overstretched since the proposal extends way beyond simple relocation “like with like,” and in practice also entails a substantial enlargement of the facility as well as the inclusion of additional development,” the report states.

An Environmental Planning Statement presented by the developers has predicted a number of potential impacts on the environment.

One of the risks foreseen in the study is the contamination of groundwater as a result of fuel spillage or leakages from the underground fuel storage tanks.

According to the EPS, there is “a potential risk that a rupture in the underground storage tanks would discharge its contents and severely contaminate groundwater.”

But the EPS notes that since fields in the area make use of water bowsers, this contamination of groundwater will not affect agricultural land.

This claim was shot down by the Malta Resources Authority, which notes the presence of a number of private boreholes in the vicinity of the site.

“Moreover, contamination plumes are known to travel and are not stable, thus implying that agricultural land and water resources will be put at considerable risk”.

The area on which the petrol station is being proposed has no ecological value and is currently used  as a storage yard by building contractors.

But the site falls within the Protected Area of Hydrological Importance and is in the vicinity of Il-Wied ta’ l-Isperanza watercourse which is 400 meters from the site of the proposed petrol station and the Wied l-Isperanza Pumping Station which lies 750 meters from the proposed development.