LCQ1: Environment issues in Lung Kwu Tan
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Question:
Some Lung Kwu Tan residents have relayed that quite a number of obnoxious facilities and heavy industries (including two power plants, a landfill, a columbarium, sludge incinerators, a steel mill and a cement plant) are located in the vicinity of their residences, causing serious air and noise pollution, as well as odour and traffic congestion problems. They are worried that the Government's plan for reclamation at Lung Kwu Tan may aggravate such problems. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has regularly monitored the air quality of Lung Kwu Tan and its vicinity, including the concentrations of various types of air pollutants (i.e. respirable suspended particulates, fine suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone) and if such concentrations have exceeded the limits of the Air Quality Objectives, as well as the sources of the pollutants; whether it has assessed if the health of the local residents has been affected as a result; if it has assessed, of the details, and whether it will publish the assessment outcome; if it has not assessed, the reasons for that;
(2) of the current average daily quantity of municipal solid waste received by the West New Territories Landfill, as well as the quantity and percentage of such quantity delivered by land transport; the average daily vehicular traffic flow of Lung Kwu Tan Road and, out of such figure, the respective numbers of trips made by heavy vehicles and refuse collection vehicles; the details of the daily cleaning work carried out at Lung Kwu Tan Road, including the frequency, schedule, methods and effectiveness; and
(3) as the Government has indicated that when selecting reclamation sites, it will attach importance to the impacts on the community and fully consider the views of residents, whether the Government will undertake not to take forward the Lung Kwu Tan reclamation plan before it has formulated effective solutions for tackling the aforesaid problems, so as to allay the concerns of the residents?
Reply:
President,
In response to the questions raised by the Hon Kenneth Lau, with the Development Bureau consulted, my consolidated reply is as follows:
(1) To improve the air quality of Hong Kong (including Tuen Mun District), the Government has been working hard to reduce the local emissions of pollutants and strengthen the collaboration with the Guangdong Provincial Government to tackle the regional air pollution problems. The major measures implemented in recent years include progressively phasing out pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles; further tightening the emission standards for vehicles; strengthening the control of emissions of petrol and liquefied petroleum gas vehicles; further increasing the use of natural gas for power generation and progressively tightening the emissions of power plants; and regulating the vessels to use low sulphur fuel, etc. With the implementation of the above emission reduction measures, the average concentrations of the major air pollutants (including respirable suspended particulates, fine suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide) in the ambient air and at roadside have dropped by about 20 to 50 per cent in the past five years (i.e. between 2015 and 2019), except ozone level which is still on a rise owing to the regional pollution problem. This reflects the local emission reduction and control measures implemented in recent years have been effective.
Under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, the existing large-scale facilities located in Lung Kwu Tan, such as power plants, T‧PARK (sludge treatment facility), steel mills and cement plants, etc., are required to apply for the Specified Process Licences issued by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) for their operation. The licences stipulate that the best practicable means shall be in place to reduce air pollution emissions for protection of air quality. In addition, the EPD has required the setup of air quality monitoring stations under the licensing conditions of power plants to monitor the air quality of nearby areas. The EPD will also send inspectors to these facilities to conduct inspections from time to time and require the licence holders to conduct emissions monitoring for ensuring their compliance with the licence requirements.
The CLP Power Hong Kong Limited has set up air quality monitoring stations in the vicinity of the power plant, including Lung Kwu Tan Village, in accordance with the requirements of the Specified Process Licence to monitor the potential impacts of the concentration of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emitted from the power plant on the nearby areas. The concentrations of the air pollutants recorded at the Lung Kwu Tan Village monitoring station in 2019 are set out in the Annex. The data shows that the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide concentrations recorded in the area not only comply with the current Air Quality Objectives, the nitrogen dioxide concentrations are also better than the concentration levels recorded at the general air quality monitoring stations in urban areas.
(2) In 2019, the total amount of solid waste received by the West New Territories Landfill is around 8 400 metric tonnes per day, of which about 70 per cent are transported by sea while the remaining 30 per cent (about 2 700 metric tonnes of waste) are transported by land to the West New Territories Landfill. The total number of vehicles passing through Lung Kwu Tan Road exceeds 2 600 per day, of which about 10 per cent (about 300 vehicles) are vehicles carrying waste to the West New Territories Landfill, including about 200 heavy vehicles, 60 enclosed refuse collection vehicles and about 40 refuse collection vehicles and other vehicles.
The EPD has been in close contacts with the villagers of Lung Kwu Tan Village to collect their views on improving the environment nearby Lung Kwu Tan Road. In view of the fact that the vehicles passing through Lung Kwu Tan Road would bring in silt and dirt, the EPD has been determined to improve the road cleaning method for Lung Kwu Tan Road. After consulting the villagers in late 2019, the EPD has introduced new model of road cleaning vehicles to clean the road surface and the roadside silt and dirt, and clear the ponding on the road surface, as well as stepped up its cleaning work at Lung Kwu Tan Road. In accordance with the villagers' requests, in addition to washing the Lung Kwu Tan Road once a day, the EPD's contractor also arranges cleaning of Lung Kwu Tan Road three times every day at noon, 4pm and 8pm respectively. In addition, the EPD will arrange contractors to carry out deep cleaning work on the sidewalks along the road sections close to Lung Kwu Tan Village from time to time where necessary. They will not only clean up the accumulated silt and dirt on the pavement but also the railings and the street signs. The EPD staff will also carry out inspections to these road sections twice a day to ensure the environment is clean and hygienic.
(3) The Development Bureau has been striving hard to increase land supply through a multi-pronged approach for land supply strategy. Lung Kwu Tan and its neighborhood are located in the westernmost of Tuen Mun. There are currently various industrial facilities in the area including two power plants. The Development Bureau plans to carry out a comprehensive planning and engineering study on Lung Kwu Tan and west coast of Tuen Mun, in order to provide land for diverse economic activities in a focused, orderly, and more land-use-efficient manner. The land uses will include provision of space for relocating the existing industrial facilities in Tuen Mun West and some brownfield operations which will be affected by the development. These land uses can create jobs which will benefit the local community.
The Development Bureau will explore feasible urban planning options in the proposed study, carry out environmental impact assessment in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance, and conduct community engagement programme in order to collect views of the Lung Kwu Tan villagers and other stakeholders. The Government is planning to construct a new road in the reclamation area as an alternative route to the existing Lung Kwu Tan Road, so that the heavy vehicles currently passing through the Lung Kwu Tan village can be diverted away from the village in the future. The Government will also study the upgrading of Lung Mun Road and explore the connection of Tuen Mun West transportation network to the proposed Tuen Mun South Station, in order to enhance the accessibility of the coastal developments in Tuen Mun West.
Thank you, President.
Ends/Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Issued at HKT 14:50
Issued at HKT 14:50
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