Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) registers its concern at MEPA’s decision to approve a permit to set up a petrol station with canopy, car-wash, garage and shop at Buqana, in the beautiful valley beneath Rabat, on the road between Mdina and Ta’ Qali. The environment NGO states that while it appreciates that petrol stations should be moved out of residential areas, relocation to areas of scenic beauty should not be an option.
The approval of the site is even more astounding, given that a permit for another petrol station in the vicinty was refused on the grounds of unsuitability to the rural landscape in an area categorised by MEPA as Out of Development Zone (ODZ). The refusal for this other petrol station application came about despite a MEPA Board member stating that its siting would have been less damaging to landscape. This refusal was confirmed at the appeal stage and by the Auditor as recently as February 07. While this area is designated as “suitable for agro-tourism” MEPA found justifiable reasons to refuse an application for the building of research rooms for a nearby vineyard and yet the petrol station, complete with canopy, car-wash and shop was approved!
An FAA spokesperson commented “If nothing else, this permit should have been refused due to the fact that the site overlies the Mean Sea Level Aquifer, Malta’s most important source of drinking water and is surrounded by WSC potable water boreholes just to the north and east of the site, with the galleries of the Ta Qali Pumping Station to the east. This means that carcinogenic hydrocarbons and vehicle emissions may end up in rainwater runoff that refills the aquifer, or directly into the aquifer in the event of a leak or major spill.” The site is also upstream of Chadwick Lakes.
However the permit was still granted in spite of the fact that it was pointed out by FAA that there is no instrumentation installed at the WSC boreholes and pumping stations that will immediately detect the presence of these hazardous pollutants should they end up in the potable water supply. In spite of mitigation measures and precautions being imposed in the permit conditions, a member of the MEPA Board still questioned the petrol station’s capability to contain major fuel spills.
As was highlighted by another Board member, this decision opens the doors to the transfer of more petrol stations to ODZ areas of great scenic value, to the detriment of our landscapes and tourism. Such ODZ developments are supposedly only permissible in exceptional cases which have to be fully justified. In this case the existence of no less than four other petrol stations within a kilometre of the proposed one would seem to eliminate the need for an additional structure which can be seen from Mdina and its surroundings. FAA members present at the hearing repeatedly pressed for a justification for the granting of this permit as required by Structure Plan policy SET 12, but no answer was forthcoming.
FAA maintains that the transfer of the petrol station and car-wash to this site, exchanging an urban blight for a rural one, is yet another short-sighted decision on MEPA’s part, not only spoiling the rural surroundings but also constituting a potential threat to the purity of the water supply.