Delimara gas plant: ‘unsatisfactory’ studies completed in just two months

The environmental impact assessment on the prospective Delimara gas power station, natural gas terminal and gasification unit was completed in the record time of two months - before the award of the lucrative multimillion-euro tender to any of the six bidders vying for the contract.

Yesterday, environmental NGO Din l-Art Helwa received the draft EIA for the new gas-fired plant, but immediately told MEPA, the environment and planning authority that the EIA would not be complete until further details of the major project were made available for assessment.

"An EIA should ensure that both the authorities and the public are fully aware of the environmental implications of a project before a decision is made. It must assess all predicted significant impacts of a proposal, and examine how each adverse impact may be mitigated and reduced. Din l-Art Helwa maintains that this will not be possible until more details of the project are presented," DLH president Simone Mizzi said.

Mizzi said the EIA was not comprehensive, since the consultants engaged to carry out the studies did not yet have the full details of the proposed project.

"The report itself acknowledges that, as the operator of the new power plant has not yet been selected, the level of detail available for assessment is limited.

"It does not contain satisfactory information about the amount of land reclamation, excavation and dredging that will be required, and some of the consultants themselves express a low level of confidence in their own predictions due to a lack of data. The report does not evaluate any technological alternatives and does not present a clear, comparative assessment of the environmental impacts of the three proposed layouts."

The EIA was completed in just two months and before the award of the tender. Moreover, two MEPA board members - biologist and marine pollution expert Prof. Victor Axiaq and underwater archaeology expert Timothy Gambin - will be precluded from participating in board decisions on the issue, due to their role as consultants in the EIA.

Axiaq confirmed to MaltaToday that he would not be participating in the decision-making process on the MEPA board.

It is normal practice that board members do not participate in decisions over projects in which they are involved as expert consultants.

But in this case the MEPA board will find itself deprived of the expertise of its two most knowledgeable experts on the Delimara gas plant and terminal's impact on the marine environment.

This particular aspect was expected to be one of the most controversial issues of the new power plant, due to the dredging works required to construct a jetty and the potential of storing gas on a ship berthed to the jetty.

MaltaToday is informed that the EIA assesses various options, including the storage of gas on a ship moored to a jetty, as well as locating the storage tanks on land.

Enemalta submitted the first draft of the EIA to MEPA last Monday.

The study was started in July, when a project development statement (PDS) was submitted to MEPA. Its terms of reference were issued a few weeks later.

Environmental NGOs and other official bodies now have one month to submit their feedback on the report. The EIA cannot be publicised before it is validated by MEPA.

Planning consultants ERSLI were chosen to coordinate the EIA for the power plant. Instead of issuing a tender, the government sought a number of quotations, which were subsequently evaluated by the Energy Ministry, a spokesperson for Minister Konrad Mizzi told MaltaToday back in June.

ERSLI is owned by architects Paul Gauci and Charles Gauci.

EIA studies on normal development projects usually take more than a year to complete. Parallel to the EIA process, MEPA will also have to assess the safety aspects in separate hearings related to the issue of an Integrated Pollution Prevention Control permit.