Shipyard grit blasting leads to huge increase in reports of property damage

Recent police statistics for Bormla are startling – in 2011, the police received 27 reports related to damage to private property there, and 35 reports in 2012, but in 2013 the number rose sharply to 582, giving a staggering increase of 1,563% between one year and the next.

The police told MaltaToday that this unnatural rise was a result of a “substantial number of reports about damage to private property allegedly caused by grit blasting originating from the nearby dockyard facilities”.

Grit blasting involves the firing of fine metal particles at a rough surface to smoothen out the surface. It is commonly used at dockyards to remove paint and rust from ship surfaces. Many of the 582 complaints of damage came from Bormla residents who found dust with specks of white paint covering their homes and cars, allegedly the result of grit blasting.

Back in 2010, Italian shipping company Palumbo acquired the Cottonera shipyards on a 30-year contract worth €29 million.

“Grit blasting has been carried out in these shipyards for over 70 years but nothing suspicious has ever been reported or claimed,” Palumbo general manager Joseph Calleja told this newspaper.

“Now that a private company has taken over the shipyard and is trying its best to carry out its activities according to the yard’s obligations, these allegations of damage to private property are flowing in.” 

Back in February this year, Calleja had told the Times of Malta that he had “evidence that those interested in stopping our operations have been making a number of baseless complaints to the authorities in an attempt to hold Palumbo back”.

When asked by MaltaToday to expand on these allegations, Calleja declined to comment, saying that it is “a matter that falls within the competence of the local authorities”.

“Residents collected dust samples from their homes and cars and sent them to the police,” Bormla’s mayor Alison Zerafa Civelli said. “A police inquiry is ongoing.”

“Residents’ complaints weren’t spread out,” Zerafa Civelli said. “Rather, a lot of grit blasting-related complaints came in at the same time.”