The Government this (March 22) morning successfully completed the transportation of the last batch of about 25 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 approved 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 although there were some protesters staging a petition outside the CWTC, the operation had been very smooth with no untoward incidents. He also stressed 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. We had successfully completed the transportation and incineration work of about 22 tonnes residues in early January and another 23 tonnes in late February.
"Given the very low concentration of dioxin in the stack emission and kiln bottom ash recorded during the last three incineration periods, the Independent Expert Assessor concluded that the incineration at CWTC is a safe and effective way to dispose of dioxin-containing residues, imposing no additional loading to the environment," the spokesman said.
"The position of the Government has all along been that the dioxin-containing residues should be disposed of in a safe and reliable manner as soon as practicable. We are committed to accomplishing the incineration of all the remaining residues at the earliest possible time and in a safe manner," he said.
"Having concluded the experience of previous transportation and incineration operations, reviewed the works progress and assessed the remaining quantity of the residues, we have decided to revise the schedule of transportation of the remaining residues of about 25 tonnes to March 22 for incineration in one-week's time," he added.
Incineration of all the remaining residues in one go will also mitigate the inconvenience caused by the temporary traffic arrangement and reduce the Police force required during the transportation operation.
The K&TDC members were informed of the revised schedule in early March and were briefed again on March 15 by government representatives.
Active steps will continue to be taken to monitor the last incineration process in the next few days. The relevant data will be posted on the website of CEDD at http://www.cedd.gov.hk/eng/topics/idcr/index.htm when they are available.
Ends/Tuesday, March 22, 2005
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