Tsing Yi residents have accused the government of using them as

guinea pigs by burning dioxin in their neighbourhood.

The Civil Engineering Department (CED) will incinerate the deadly

chemical at Tsing Yi Chemical Waste Treatment Centre on November 25.

Attempts at disposal on February 4 were called off when Kwai Tsing

district councillors, activists and residents blockaded the entrance

to the centre.

Councillor and Legislator Lee Wing-tat proposed a motion strongly

opposing the disposal of dioxin at the centre during Thursday's

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consultation at the Kwai Tsing District Council meeting. Seven guinea

pigs and petitions were delivered to the council as a protest.

The motion was passed 15-8. However, the CED will dispose of 10 tonnes

of waste at midnight on November 25.

The remaining 80 tonnes will be destroyed in 20 tonne-batches every

seven weeks starting from January 4 pending the findings of an

incineration testing report by the Environmental Protection

Department.

Each incineration is estimated to take four days but the actual

duration will depend on factors such as air quality, weather and

transport.

The entire transfer and incineration operations will be carried out at

night.

"This is not a consultation. They are just informing us that this is

going to happen," council member Wong Suet-ying said in the meeting.

Councillor Lau Pik-kin called for a repeat of February's blockade. He

said protesters were removed by the police last time and were

expecting the same again.

Most councillors who live in the district oppose the incineration. "I

don't care to sacrifice the lives of my family to impotent government

officials. If they think there is nothing wrong in burning the waste,

let them spend a night at the entrance of the treatment centre during

the incineration. I will agree with the burning if any of them dare to

do so," councillor Leung Wai-man said.

CED deputy head Yeung Kwok-kuen, played down councillors' safety

fears. "Burning is the most efficient way to eliminate the waste. We

understand the worries of councillors and residents, but we are going

ahead with the incineration," he said.

Penny's Bay, the site for Hong Kong Disneyland and source of

contaminated soil containing the dioxin, was formerly a shipyard. When

the government agreed to buy the land, it did not know the area had

30,000 cubic metres of dioxin-contaminated soil.

The Cheoy Lee shipyard was based on a 19-hectare site on the bay's

north and eastern shores between 1964 and April 2001.

The owners accepted HK$22.7 million in compensation from the

government, together with HK$1.48 billion for land required for an

"essential project with territory-wide significance", according to a

Public Works Subcommittee paper from May 2002.

The cost of decommissioning the site spiralled to HK$450 million from

the original buying price after the dioxin was discovered. The

government was unable to carry out an environmental impact assessment

before the land was surrendered because the shipyard would not allow

access to the site, a Legco submission said last year.

All contaminated soil has been excavated and treated with a process

called "thermal desorption" at To Kau Wan, north Lantau, before been

sent to the incinerator in Tsing Yi.

Last year the Environmental, Transport and Works Bureau said thermal

desorption is an internationally accepted technology for cleaning up

dioxin-contaminated soil. However, environmental groups including

Greenpeace maintain that burning the soil will not remove the dioxins.

They are one of the most toxic man-made substances.

Dioxins cause cancer, reduce sperm counts and female fertility, harm

the liver and impair the immune system.

There are several hundred of these chemical compounds and they have

similar characteristics and structures, the United States

Environmental Protection Agency says.

According to the World Health Organisation, the "principal

controllable sources of dioxin production are waste incinerators".

Its scientists agreed on a tolerable daily intake range of one to four

picogrammes per kilogram body weight. One picogramme equals one

millionth of a millionth of a gram.

monday.ng@globalchina.com

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