The Government today (February 22) successfully completed the transportation of another 20 tonnes of dioxin-containing residues from To Kau Wan (TKW) in Lantau to the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre (CWTC) in Tsing Yi for incineration in the next few days.
"The dioxin-containing residues were delivered to CWTC early this morning following a designated route specified in the Environmental Permit issued by the Director of Environmental Protection (DEP) under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance," a spokesman for the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) said.
The spokesman said that operation had been very smooth with no untoward incidents, stressing that stringent precautionary measures had been adopted throughout the entire transportation exercise.
Since the trial incineration of about 10 tonnes dioxin-containing residues on November 26, 2004 has complied with all stipulated requirements, approval was granted by the DEP for incineration of the remaining residues. About 22 tonnes of residues were subsequently transported from TKW to CWTC on January 4 for incineration from January 5 to 9, 2005.
The outcome of extensive monitoring indicated that incineration at CWTC is both a safe and effective way to dispose of dioxin-containing residues, imposing no additional loading to the environment, the spokesman said.
Active steps will continue to be taken to monitor the incineration process in the next few days, and relevant data will be posted from time to time on the website of CEDD at http://www.cedd.gov.hk/eng/topics/idcr/index.htm.
Ends/Tuesday, February 22, 2005
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