Updated | Marsa incinerator shut down due to malfunction

Adds Wasteserv and MEPA statements at 6:46pm

Labour Party spokesperson for Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Leo Brincat said that the Marsa incinerator plant has been deactivated since Saturday due to cracking in the incinerator's concrete oven-lining.

He said that there is currently no estimate for when the incinerator will be brought back into action, and said that the current downtime could last well into next week.

This, the Labour MP said, will lead to the added complications of waste piling up, adding that this will need to be frozen.

He said that, despite how the incinerator's concrete oven-lining had been freshly-done in recent weeks, it will need to be replaced before the incinerator can be re-activated

Brincat added that according to "expert sources with no partisan agenda", the fault arose because of despite how the incinerator was originally designed to burn only organic waste, today it is burning all sorts of waste, resulting in higher-than-intended levelsof heat which the incinerator was not designed to handle.

The waste being burned at Marsa, he said, included not only organic waste, but also construction, medical, and animal waste.

Brincat noted that the incinerator was modified in its early stages to be able to burn all types of waste, but questioned whether the modifications were sufficient.

By way of example, he argued that installing parts from a faster car into a slower car, didn't meant that the rest of the car would not suffer from being driven at speeds which it was not intended for.

Brincat revealed that when the incinerator's combustion engine was examined recently, the metal components which were exposed to the heat were found to be worn or warped by excessively high temperatures.

He also argued that this "unprecedented" downtime was not due to maintenance, as normal maintenance was not scheduled until next week.

Brincat also questioned the role of MEPA as a regulator in this regard.

The Labour MP said that government should be open with regard to how many inspections took place, as the Opposition is informed that "inspections have not been as regular or as frequent as they used to be."

Brincat emphasised the need for regular and frequent inspections, insisting that recently, inspections were only taking place "when particularly 'hot' parliamentary questions are made, or when the media starts scrutinising."

He also called on WasteServ to be clear on how many times it as officially communicated with MEPA when issues arose to notify the regulator of its operations.

He pointed to the conclusions of a board on inquiry that investigated potential animal carcass burning at the incinerator, which he said found that WasteServ

There were many instances where WasteServ did not communicate to MEPA, and a case, where MEPA request information from WasteServ, and WasteServ provide information to everyone except MEPA.

"This leads us to suspect that MEPA is closing an eye to government corporations," Brincat said.

On its part, Wasteserv responded by saying that the Marsa incinerator was paused for maintenance every four to five weeks, since this was necessary. 

The national waste agency denied Brincat's claims that the damage to the incinerator was caused because it was designed to incinerate animal tissue waste, and not other materials.

Meanwhile in reaction to the Labour MP's question whether MEPA is carrying out regular inspections at the Marsa Thermal Treatment Facility, the Authority said that while the IPPC Directive requires an annual inspection, so far a total of nine inspections have been carried out in 2012.