Eleven quarries booked for illegal dumping

Quarries need a permit to operate as infill sites for construction waste as these sites have to be regularly monitored to ensure that no potentially harmful material is dumped in to them.

Currently 26 quarries are authorised for these activities. These quarries are allowed to accept waste that originates from rock excavation as well as demolition waste.

This waste has to be free of soil, trees, shrubs or any other agricultural content. Demolition waste should not contain any other waste type such as aluminium, wood or iron apertures, pieces of clothing, furniture, household goods, mattresses or any other waste.

Seven of  the pending enforcements  against the dumping of illegal material in quarries have been issued prior to 2005.

Three enforcement orders were issued between 2005 and 2007, but none was issued in the next three years. The latest enforcement was issued in August 2010 against a quarry in Tal-Isqof in Mqabba.

Although 10 of these  enforcements have been pending for at least three years, MEPA has yet to stop these illegal activities as the enforcements are all still pending.

A  MEPA spokesperson claimed “an  application or appeal submitted within the imposed regulatory time frames (of 16 days)  would automatically prolong the periods until a final decision is determined by MEPA”.

In fact in four of these cases there is an application to regularise  the illegal dumping activities and in another case an appeal has been presented against the enforcement.  But five more cases have been referred for direct action, two of which date back ten years.

The oldest case of illegal dumping in a quarry involved the dumping of rubble in part of a quarry owned by Paul Polidano in Gebal Ciantar in Fawwara. The case dates back to 2000.  This case was referred for direct action.

In one of the cases awaiting sanctioning in Santa Katerina in Rabat, a weight bridge to quantify the amount of waste entering the quarry as well as two offices had been installed.

Apart from these eleven cases of illegal dumping in quarries,  three other quarries were being entirely filled with construction waste despite lacking any permits for this activity. The quarries were located in Tas-Sienja in Kirkop, in ta’ l-Isqof in Imqabba and Tad-Dawl in Imqabba.

According to a MEPA spokesperson the  landfilling in the Tas-Sienja quarry in Kirkop has been the subject of a court case since 2004.

The landfilling of the two other quarries, was only brought to the Authority's attention following the submission of planning applications on the sites for their after-use.

In both cases the Authority requested the applicants to submit detailed records of the amounts, types and origin of the material that was used to backfill the quarry in order to determine the adequacy of the material dumped.

According to MEPA 1,257,767 tonnes of inert waste  was dumped in quarries in 2008.  But the dropped to just 303,483 tonnes in 2009. Data for 2010 is still to be compiled.

When asked whether the illegal dumping in unlicensed quarries could have had an impact on the water table, the MEPA spokesperson replied that “It is within Malta Resources Authority’s remit to assess  whether such material effects the aquifer”.