Following is a question by the Hon Martin Lee and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (January 14):
Question:
It was reported that the contractor of the flood prevention project of the Drainage Services Department had dumped a large amount of debris at the "buffalo fields" in the Kam Tin wetlands in late October last year. There have been comments that the incident shows the futility of the Government's system to monitor the transportation of site wastes to designated locations for dumping. According to the Trip Ticket System for monitoring wastes from government sites, a truck carrying debris should first obtain a ticket on leaving the construction site, then dump the debris at the designated location and finally have the ticket stamped and returned to the construction site. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) how it will penalize the above contractor and monitor fly tipping of public fills and construction and demolition ("C&D") wastes by contractors; and whether it will review the Trip Ticket System; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) of the respective amounts of contractors' fly tipping of public fills and C&D wastes, and the numbers of cases in which the dumping locations were not the ones marked on the trip tickets in each of the past three years; and
(c) of the measures to deal with owners who dump debris at their land which has ecological value and engage in other activities which will upset the ecology of their land?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Drainage Services Department (DSD) contractor of the flood prevention project has without authorisation allowed the construction and demolition (C&D) materials to be used by a private land owner as fill materials in a private development. Although this does not constitute fly tipping, the contractor has breached the contractual requirement to transport C&D materials such as mud and crushed stones to a designated public filling area for disposal under the Trip Ticket System (the System). In this project, DSD required the contractor to dump the materials at the public filling area in Tuen Mun. The contractor was then required to transport the materials to the NT West Landfill. DSD subsequently issued a written warning to the contractor and, in accordance with the contract, deducted the part of project payment intended for the disposal of C&D materials. DSD has also rated the contractor's performance as unsatisfactory in its evaluation report, as a result of which the contractor may be disqualified from tendering for future public works.
To prevent fly tipping of C&D materials, all government public works contracts have to incorporate the System to monitor the disposal procedures of this particular type of materials. The current practice is for the site supervisor to regularly monitor the mode of disposal of the C&D materials generated; to inspect in advance the location to be used by the contractor for the disposal of the surplus C&D materials; and to monitor the actual disposal during the construction period. The government works departments concerned will conduct audit inspections to ensure compliance by the contractor.
We have recently reviewed the System. A new initiative is put in place to require the site supervisor to review the implementation of the System with the representative of the contractor at the monthly site meeting in addition to conducting the above-mentioned regular inspections. The works departments concerned will conduct an independent monthly audit to ensure effective implementation of the System. Within five days, we managed to hold this unauthorised dumping and penalised the contractor. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and if necessary will further review and fine-tune the System.
(b) We launched more than 1,200 public works projects during the past three years. The C&D materials thus generated amounted to some 9.1m tonnes each year and the majority of the contractors have complied with the System as specified in the contracts to return the trip tickets on schedule.
Of these 1,200 projects, we have recorded 14 cases of contractors allowing the use of the C&D materials as fill materials by private land-owners without prior authorisation of the relevant works departments. The materials involved amounted to about 74,000 tonnes. In addition, there were six cases of loss of trip tickets for about 1,700 tonnes of C&D materials.
(c) According to the Town Planning Ordinance, each draft Outline Zoning Plan specifies the always permitted uses of each designated zone and other uses which require the approval by the Town Planning Board. Any pond filling works or excavation works within the conservation zones, including "conservation areas", "coastal protection areas" and "sites of special scientific interest", in nearly all rural areas in the New Territories must obtain the prior approval of the Town Planning Board. Any such activities conducted in these zonings or any activities incompatible with the designated land use will be considered unauthorised developments which may be subject to law enforcement actions by the Government.
In addition, I introduced the Waste Disposal (Amendment) (No.2) Bill 2003 to this Council on 17 December last year, with a view to effecting the construction waste disposal charging scheme and strengthening control against illegal disposal of waste. At present, the Waste Disposal Ordinance has already provided for sanctions against illegal disposal of waste. However, to prevent people from evading their responsibilities after the introduction of the charging scheme, we proposed to implement the following measures to strengthen control against illegal disposal of waste:
(i) To empower the court to order the person convicted of illegal disposal of waste to remove the waste on Government land. In cases where the removal work has already been carried out by Government, the court may order the convicted person to pay all or part of the removal cost incurred by Government;
(ii) To empower the Director of Environmental Protection (DEP) to enter without warrant any places, other than domestic premises and private land for dwelling purpose, to remove the waste in cases where there is an imminent risk of serious environmental impact and immediate remedial actions are required. DEP shall only enter domestic premises and private land for dwelling purpose when a warrant is obtained. DEP will be entitled to apply to the court to recover from the convicted person the cost of removing the waste; and
(iii) To amend the existing offence of illegal disposal of waste to make available the exception of having lawful authority or excuse or permission of the owner or occupier of the land regardless of where the waste is deposited; to further stipulate that the driver of a vehicle (not being a public transport carrier) from which waste is deposited as well as the employer of that driver are to be regarded as the persons causing waste to be deposited; and to provide for the statutory defences of reasonable precautions and due diligence to a defendant charged with the offence of illegal disposal of waste.
I hope Members will support the Bill so that these measures can be implemented as soon as possible to strengthen control against illegal disposal of waste.
Ends/Wednesday, January 14, 2004
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