*********************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Martin Lee and a reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (November 22) :
Question:
It was reported that there was an oil leakage at the Castle Peak Power Station of CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP) in 2004, and the waters in the vicinity might have been contaminated. However, at that time CLP had only notified the relevant government departments of the incident without making it public. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the government departments responsible for handling oil leakages from power plants and monitoring the operation of power plants to prevent oil leakages;
(b) why the relevant government departments had not informed the public of the oil leakage incident after receiving the report from CLP; whether power companies are required to make a public announcement in the event of an oil leakage; if so, of the details of the announcement mechanism; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) of the present water quality in the waters affected by the oil leakage, and whether there are signs of contamination?
Reply:
Madam President,
I would like to reply to the three questions raised by the Honourable Member as follows:
(a) Environmental legislations are in place to monitor the air emissions, sewage discharge as well as chemical waste disposal of power plants. Power plants are required to be licensed in accordance with the relevant legislation. The Environment Protection Department (EPD) will carry out regular inspections at power plants at least four times a year according to the licensing terms and requirements to ensure that their operation meets statutory standards. The EPD also carries out unscheduled inspections in response to complaints or special circumstances. During the inspections, the EPD staff will:
(i) inspect all discharge points and conduct sampling for analysis at relevant discharge points;
(ii) take enforcement action in accordance with various pollution control ordinances as well as the licensing terms and conditions; and
(iii) carry out inspections in response to public complaints or special circumstances.
(b) According to the Dangerous Goods Ordinance (Cap. 295), storage or use of dangerous goods in excess of the exempted quantities requires a dangerous goods license issued by the Fire Services Department (FSD). To ensure the safe operation of oil storage installations and equipment, the FSD, upon the issue of the license, will specify the requirement of regular repair and maintenance of the oil storage installations and other equipment. With regard to oil tank leakages, the FSD also monitors the fire safety of dangerous goods. According to Section 129 of the Dangerous Goods (General) Regulations (Cap. 295B), if the licensee of any oil tank has reasonable grounds to suspect that such tank is leaking, he shall forthwith report the circumstances in writing to the FSD. Moreover, the Shipping and Port Control Ordinance stipulates that if any oil is discharged into the waters of Hong Kong, the owner or master of the vessel, or the occupier of the place on land shall forthwith report the occurrence to the Marine Department (MD).
In an oil leakage incident at a power plant or industrial facility, the management staff of the facility must take all practical measures according to their contingency plan to contain and collect the oil spill in order to stop it from spreading to other areas. Oil and other polluted waste collected in the incident should be handled in accordance with the requirements of the chemical waste control regulations and then passed to a licensed collector for delivery to the proper facilities for disposal.
If there is massive oil leakage posing a fire risk, the management staff should immediately ask the FSD for assistance. The response team of EPD, upon receiving the notification, will send the contractor of the Chemical Waste Treatment Plant at Tsing Yi to the scene to help remove and dispose of polluted waste.
According to the report provided by the CLP and investigation findings, it was discovered on July 29, 2004 that oil had leaked from a slit in an oil pipe of 2 inches in diameter inside a pipe trench near the fuel pump house. It was believed that heavy rain earlier that day had carried some of the oil spill accumulated in the trench into the sea via the storm water drain. Immediately after the incident, staff of the CLP power station repaired the pipe, stopped the oil leakage and cleaned the polluted sea surface within the same day. The CLP estimated that the amount of oil leaked on that day was less than 0.1 tonne.
On receiving the report of oil spill in the waters off the Castle Peak Power Station, the MD and the EPD immediately deployed their staff to handle the incident. The MD was mainly responsible for controlling and cleaning up the oil spill at sea, while the EPD was mainly responsible for monitoring and evaluating the pollution caused by the leakage. A sea area of 10,000 square metres was involved but only sporadic patches of oil were found at individual locations. The entire clean-up operation was duly completed on that day in accordance with established procedures. The EPD also found in its investigation that the leakage had been contained and most of the oil spill at sea had been cleaned up. Moreover, EPD staff inspected the vicinity and confirmed that there was no sign of oil contamination. As a result, the Government did not inform the public of the incident.
Generally speaking, if the pollution of waters caused by oil spill or other substances affects the nearby beach water quality or the ecology of the water body, the MD and the EPD will, according to the information available, notify the relevant departments to take appropriate actions and inform the public as soon as possible.
On top of the existing mechanism, the EPD has also discussed with the power companies the formulation of a set of guidelines, requiring them to notify the EPD in addition to the relevant government departments as stipulated by law, and take the initiative to inform the public accordingly in the event of environmental pollution incident at their power plants.
(c) As regards the above oil leakage incident, the EPD has reviewed the data of its regular water monitoring in the territory and other environmental monitoring programmes conducted in the vicinity. An evaluation of the possible impact of the oil spill on the water quality and the marine ecology of the waters in the area has been made. The EPD monitors the sea water quality across the territory and collects water samples from various sea areas for laboratory analysis on a regular basis. According to the water quality data collected and the site observations made in the monitoring station near Tap Shek Kok between August 2004 and September 2006, the water quality in the nearby waters was normal, with no signs of deterioration or oil contamination. Moreover, there was no change in the marine ecology in the neighbouring waters of Tap Shek Kok in the same period.
Ends/Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:18
NNNN
