Works near Gozo helipad covered by MEPA permit

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has issued a permit for the deposition of soil or "other material" on agricultural land disturbed by illegal dumping, in the vicinity of a heliport.

In the 1990s the land in question was identified as a runway for an airstrip, before the project was aborted by former Prime Minister Alfred Sant. The current government has not excluded developing an airstrip on the same site.

The permit to remove illegal dumping and deposit soil on this archeologically sensitive area was issued on 10 December 2013, through a Development Notification Order, a simplified planning procedure which does not require the presentation of a case officer's report, and normally used for minor interventions or developments.

In the 1990s the Museum Department had claimed that its work to assess the archaeological potential of the site had been hindered by the illegal dumping.

An enforcement order against the illegal dumping in the area was only issued in 2010.

According to MEPA, the ongoing works, which involve the removal of the illegal dumping, are in line with preparation works related to the DNO. The removal of the illegally dumped construction waste will be followed by the deposition of soil and other material.

The same DNO clearance issued in December stipulated monitoring of the works by the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage (SCH), which has been notified that works commenced.  MEPA enforcement officers are also monitoring these works.

According to a spokesperson for Gozo Minister Anton Refalo, the clean-up is taking place "for the benefit of farmers in the area and the general environment which was abandoned for a long period of time."

But in a statement issued last week, the Gozo Business Chamber and the Gozo Tourism Association said they welcomed these works, "in preparation for the Gozo airstrip."

One major obstacle to the project is the presence of archeological remains in the vicinity of the proposed area, some of which were covered by illegal dumping.  According to the Superintendent for Cultural Heritage, the only official studies ever conducted on the area were carried out by the Museums Department in the mid-1990s.

"At the time it emerged that the footprint of the projected airstrip was to be located over an area almost entirely covered by recent dumping. This rendered the assessment of the land from an archaeological point of view virtually impossible," acting Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar had told MaltaToday in January 2007.

But a separate survey carried out by MEPA in 2006 claimed that "the preliminary archaeological survey did not register insurmountable problems as the area has been predominantly heavily disturbed. But this does not mean that surprises cannot appear during the intervention stage."

Xewkija is rich in archaeological remains, to the extent that archaeologist David Trump had noted "several fine pairs" of cart ruts in the olive grove west of the pumping station, just south of Xewkija, less than a kilometre away from the proposed airstrip. In 1948, newspaper Il-Berqa revealed that parts of these cart ruts were vandalised when explosives were used to clear the ground for the olive grove.

Archaeological remains in the area are already indicated in a map in the Gozo and Comino local plan but these remains lie either at the periphery or outside the affected area.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has called for an environmental impact assessment if an application to extend the Ta' Lambert airstrip in Gozo is presented to MEPA.

The development of a fixed-wing landing strip at Ta' Lambert is actually considered in MEPA's Gozo-Comino local plan, but the same plan clearly states that before any decision can be taken on the matter, investigations must first be carried out of the development's impact.
This must of course include cultural heritage impacts.

The local plan also states that MEPA should assist the government in drafting the terms of reference for a study which should also explore alternatives to a hard runway such as the use of amphibious aircraft landing at Marsalforn.
It also states that no concrete evidence exists to demonstrate that a fixed wing service would be viable.