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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (June 25) :

Question:

On the 27th of last month, the Director of Environmental Protection published a notice under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance stating that it had received an application from the Green Island Cement Company Limited for a licence to conduct an "incinerator" process in its Tuen Mun plant, and that objections to the granting of the licence should be made within 30 days. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether independent persons will be appointed to conduct an objective analysis of the objections received; if so, of the details of the arrangement; if not, the reasons for that;

(b) how it will practically consider such objections and when the result of the application will be announced; and

(c) whether, in respect of the application, an independent and impartial environmental impact assessment has been conducted; if so, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Green Island Cement Company Limited (GIC) have jointly obtained funding from the University-Industry Collaboration Programme under the Innovation and Technology Fund to carry out a pilot project on the development of an "Integrated Co-combustion Cement Production Facility" at Tap Shek Kok in Tuen Mun. The total operating time of the pilot project is about 4 months. Since the project involves the operation of a plant with a capacity to burn waste or refuse of more than 0.5 tonne per hour, it is a specified process under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (APCO) and the project proponent is required to apply to the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) for a licence. In accordance with the APCO, EPD authorised GIC to publish a notice in newspapers regarding its application and made the application available for public inspection. GIC published the notice on 27 May 2003.

Under the APCO, within a period of 30 days after the notice was published, i.e. from 27 May 2003 to 26 June 2003, any person may object to the granting of the licence on the grounds that -

(a) the specified process would tend to inhibit the attainment or maintenance of any relevant air quality objective; or

(b) the emission of noxious or offensive emissions would be, or likely to be, prejudicial to health.

As the APCO already prescribes the specific requirements that EPD should follow in processing the application, EPD will not appoint any independent person to analyse the objections received.

(b) EPD will consider the grounds on which objections can be raised under the APCO and also make reference to the methods and objective standards set out in the relevant guidelines, including the Guidance Note on the Best Practicable Means and the Guidelines on Choice of Models and Model Parameters. The APCO provides that EPD may not grant or refuse to grant the licence earlier than 40 days after the publication of the notice regarding the application (i.e. not earlier than 6 July 2003). Since EPD is still processing the application, it cannot fix the date on which a decision will be made.

(c) As the pilot project is small in scale and its installed refuse burning capacity will not exceed 50 tonnes per day, there is no need for an environmental impact assessment to be conducted for the pilot project under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance.

End/Wednesday, June 25, 2003

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